The Key is Odd
by Stardustadventurer
Summary: It's been 15 years since the supercomputer was shut down, now the factory is abandoned again. But 5 new children discover the secrets of Lyoko again but also of XANA. When one of them switched on the supercomputer, a purple catboy appeared on the screen with no memory. What on earth happened to the original Lyoko warriors? What happened that day 15 years ago? AU and has OCs
1. How it all began

_The Key is Odd_

_Intro_

_Now I decided to make an adaption of Code Lyoko with Odd as the main character. It may seem at first completely unrelated to the original characters but as you read on it gets better (probably). This is an AU story. _

_There shall also be an OddxOC and another OCxOC pairing throughout it. The romance shall not feature heavily throughout it, so it's more about friendship than anything else that's why i changed the second genre from romance which i originally had it under.  
_

_Disclaimer:_

_The show Code Lyoko and its characters don't belong to me they are owned by Canal J, I do not claim any of the merchandise associated with them, I think the only thing I can claim is the idea of this story._

_**Warning**__: main characters are going to be taken off and replaced by OCs._

_**You will notice that I've associated eye colour with all the characters, even on Lyoko where originally they didn't have eye colours except Aelita. So let's just all imagine that you can see what their eye colour is before Evolution it'd make things a lot easier.**_

Chapter 1

A 13 year old girl with violet eyes and long waist length Auburn hair tied back in a ponytail walked down the sewers. She wore a forest green shirt with a blue bow on her chest, lime green short tight skirt and blue over the knee socks with green/yellow pumps.

"Cherry! Why are we going to switch on this what-cha-ma-call-it?" A girl with short lilac hair asked her friend. The lilac haired girl wore an indigo crop top with a white jacket over with a short white skirt and dark blue knee high boots.

"I told you, it's a supercomputer! I invited you today to see it. It's underneath the abandoned factory near the school and this tunnel is the quickest route to get there. You always said you wanted a little more adventure in your life" Cherry explained irritated at her constant moaning.

"No, I'm just tired from having to fend off all those boys after me" she sighed.

"Maybe if you didn't encourage them so much" Cherry pointed out.

"What? Like you and Peter?" she smirked in satisfaction when Cherry turned as red as her name.

"Emerald! I don't like him!" she shrieked.

"I never said you did" Emerald replied calmly looking away.

"Geez, you're too much. And it was a misunderstanding" Cherry huffed.

The girls walked on until they came across the ladder that goes onto the bridge and began climbing up it.

"So how did you find this so-called supercomputer in the first place?" Emerald asked curiously as they walked through the entrance of the factory.

"I didn't have any parts to help repair your father's mobile, so I figured this old factory should have a few parts. It did. And more" Cherry beamed.

"Aren't you the slightest bit scared?" Emerald asked bewildered by her friend's enthusiasm.

"Shouldn't you be scared if your father finds out you broke his mobile? I still haven't managed to get it repaired, and I reckon he's starting to wonder where he put it" Cherry sang and Emerald froze as a fearful reminder sparked in her hazel brown eyes before face palming.

"I'm so grounded" she groaned as Cherry pressed the big red button by the shaft while laughing.

"Don't worry, I'll cheer you up at school" she giggled.

"Cheers Cher" she grinned back at her smiling friend as the lift shutter opened and they entered. Cherry pressed the floor number and off they went.

_The supercomputer room:_

Cherry confidently walked forward to the switch while her friend timidly followed behind her, shy around this new environment.

Cherry placed her hands on the switch and took a deep breath hoping she wasn't going to regret this.

She and Emerald both gave a little squeak when she pushed down on the switch turning the computer on.

There was the sound of the computer starting up before a bright white flash burst from the power source. The girls cried out in surprise before it died down and they walked back towards the lift their hair a bit frazzled.

"Oh no, my hair!" Emerald exclaimed desperately smoothing down her hair while Cherry ran a hand over her own tied back hair that was in a ponytail with a green ribbon.

They moved up two floors to be in what appeared to be the control room. Cherry went and sat in the big computer seat where a few monitors were set up; She looked like she belonged in that seat.

"Let's see what the hype you've been raving is all about" Emerald announced as Cherry turned the computer screen on and put on the earpiece on the computer that had a microphone as well as a small earphone.

Several programs opened up but an unexpected window opened up revealing a sleeping blonde haired boy with hair spiked to a point and a purple splodge in it. He was dressed in what seemed to be a purple cat costume complete with tail in front of a green data background in full body view.

He wore a purple sleeveless polo necked top over what Cherry could see and only assume is a pink and yellow vest underneath. She couldn't tell very well with his top on.

He also had big purple paw gloves that reached his upper arms, and then he had purple trousers with yellow knee pads wrapped with a pink band around his knees to keep them there, yellow shoes and finally pink war makeup on his cheeks and purple marks above his eyebrows.

The boys was lying face up with one paw on his stomach and the other near his head so Cherry had a full body view of him. On top of that she could hear gentle breathing coming from the earpiece, that she could only assume was the cat boy sleeping on the screen.

"EM! Em, come have a look" she called to her friend who rushed over to see what it was.

"Well, well, well…Who's the cute virtual cat-boy?" she immediately asked licking her lips attentively like he was a delicious meal about to be served to her.

"He's not real you know? He's part of some sort of I-don't-know virtual game?" Cherry reminded her friend.

"Awww, come on! Can't I admire at least virtual boys as well?" Emerald whined.

_In the computer:_

Unbeknownst to the two friends their bickering was heard by the cat boy whose human ears twitched before being followed by his paws. Then he opened his amber eyes slowly before getting up as the grogginess left his mind and he leaned forward to peer at the data screen in front of him that showed two girls bickering over something.

"Um…" he started nervously and waited until they turned to face him before continuing.

"Why are you fighting?" he asked curiously tilting his head like a child thinking they should hear him if he could hear them.

_Back outside the computer:_

"Um…" said a boy's voice that made both girls freeze and turn their heads back to the computer to the boy's face on it looking at them close up no longer in full body view. It revealed war paint markings were on his face, a pink stripe on the bottom of each side of his cheeks and purple markings above his eyebrows.

"Why are you fighting?" they see him tilt his head like a child would to a parent; his bright amber eyes made him look very innocent.

Cherry recovered first excitedly facing the screen and talking back hurriedly.

"Oh, nothing, nothing!" she assured.

"Ok… the next set of thoughts that spring to mind is: who are you? And where am I?" Odd asked confused looking around at the background surroundings of Cherry and his own which Cherry couldn't see.

"Me? I'm Cherry Morel and this is my best friend Emerald Cortes" Cherry smiled nicely giving a wave while Emerald had calmed down and gave a small smile along with a wave to the boy.

"Nice to meet you" the boy beamed back.

"What's your name?" Cherry encouraged wanting to bond further with this artificial life form.

"I was hoping you could tell me. I don't remember anything" the boy shook his head.

"Are you telling me an Artificial Intelligence like you doesn't have any memory on your activities or interactions you had with others before?" Emerald burst out.

"No, my body may be artificial, but my intelligence most certainly is not" the boy shot back defensively.

"Well, we must call you something if you don't like Artificial Intelligence, can you think of a name for us to call you by?" Cherry reasoned.

"What do you suggest?" the boy requested unable to think of any.

"Hmmm… how about 'Arti'?" Emerald suggested.

"Arti…" the boy put his claw on his mouth gently testing it on his tongue and thinking it over before a smile crossed his features.

"I like it! it gives a nice feeling" 'Arti' beamed closing his eyes with a happy nod.

_2 hours later:_

"Well, Cher this is all very exciting. But we both have an exciting day of school tomorrow as well. So don't go back too late, and be careful when going past Jim." Emerald yawned before leaving.

"Ok" Cherry waved without looking back at her too focused on exploring what was on this supercomputer than going back to bed at Kadic.

"What's school?" Arti asked tilting his head.

"Oh, it's an institute where we learn about all sorts of subjects ranging from maths to art. You also get to interact and have fun with the other students and work in groups to learn better" Cherry answered uninterestedly.

"So, you learn about stuff with your friends?" Arti hyped fascinated.

"Yeah, they're always adding new and old stuff to the curriculum though so it gets a bit confusing at times, but I manage" Cherry beamed at Arti still looking through all the data of the supercomputer.

"Wow, school…? It sounds like fun. I wish I could go" Arti chirped

"Maybe I could materialise you in the scanners downstairs and you could come to Earth?" Cherry suggested kindly.

"Really, you'd do that for me?" Arti exclaimed hopefully.

"Yeah, I'll link my laptop to the supercomputer so I can have a quick look and come by tomorrow. Right now though, I need to get back to school" Cherry synchronised her laptop with the supercomputer.

"Bye Arti, see you tomorrow" She winked before getting into the lift faintly hearing Arti say bye before she put the supercomputer on standby.

_On the computer:_

Arti sat there leaning back thinking about the past few hours with his two new friends and so far the only humans he knew.

Still Cherry seemed familiar to him, but he knew that he hadn't met her before today at least that's how his memory played it out. But she seemed like an echo of something or someone he met. Her friend Emerald also seemed the same.

"Why can't I figure this out?" he whispered looking down at the floor trying to ransack his memory.

Since nothing else seemed interesting at the minute Arti just lay down for some sleep.

_The next day Kadic academy:_

Cherry was in science class with Mrs Hertz, Emerald was in the year above so Cherry wasn't going to be able to talk to her until lunch. She had looked around the program files that morning but with no luck on the program for Arti.

Everyone got out their science textbooks and exercise books. While a new Japanese student with brown mid-back long hair flowing down her back with a blue flower hairclip walked into the room. She wore a peach tube top with apricot and purple flower arm sleeves; she wore burgundy jeans and blue trainers.

She searched the room with sparkling jade eyes before approaching a blonde Japanese boy with grey eyes sitting at a desk; his hair was short with a parted fringe to the right. He was wearing a dark green T-shirt with a maroon jacket and matching maroon combat trousers along with dark green shoes.

"Hey there Sora" the girl greeted and the boy looked up to see her.

"Kairi? What are you doing here?" Sora asked shocked.

"Well, mum and dad decided to enrol me in this school as well. Also I'm your new roommate, our parents managed to convince the headmistress to let us bunk together just like old times" Kairi beamed sitting next to him.

"B-but I'm a boy, I have stuff in there that I don't want you to see!" he protested.

"Oh please, you think I don't know about your nightlight or love of unicorns?" she scoffed.

"I don't like unicorns, they don't exist like fairies" he snapped back at her and Kairi's face turned dark.

"First of all don't say that! I do believe in fairies! And secondly I've seen your unicorn toy on your bed today so there's no use in hiding or trying to redirect the conversation." She chirped in a highly sugary but clearly toxic voice that made Sora sweat drop.

"Whatever…" Sora backed away from the conversation letting his sister get her way for now.

A girl with piercing, penetrating but pretty ice-blue eyes walked down the classroom past the siblings seats as Kairi leaned back in her seat. The girl stopped by the sibling's desk and looked at Sora with a flirty look flaunting her body to appear more attractive than she already was.

The girl had long light brown hair with had the front part of her hair tied back with a white ribbon into a small ponytail that trailed down her back along with the rest of her hair stopping midway down her back. She wore a pixie pink frilly short sleeved top; white disco trousers and pink shoes.

"Hey there, Sora-love. There's something important I must tell you!" the girl asked in a kittenish voice ignoring the fact that Kairi was there.

"Please, don't tell me it's important like: 'I lost my hair straightener' or 'I've lost my best make-up kit so I have to use rubbish products now'" Sora said uninterested.

"No, nothing that serious" the girl assured happily, ignorant to his complete disinterest in her. Kairi was surprised that she actually considered those sorts of situations serious.

"It's about you and me Sora. If you wish to know the rest, you know where my room is. So pop round at about half 8 kay?" she winked before walking on and Kairi swivelled her chair around to watch her as she went before turning back to her brother with a smirk on her face.

"So who's your girlfriend?" she teased.

"Lia, the headmistress's daughter. Lots of boys chase after her but she only chases after me… and she's not my girlfriend!" Sora replied irritably.

"Wouldn't you want her to be your girlfriend if boys fall for her that easily and she's only after you?" Kairi raised an eyebrow.

"At first, but she's completely brain-dead. She barely knows how to do basic stuff and is a complete attention seeker" Sora leaned on his textbook and put his face in his hand in exasperation.

"So in other words she's a sket. I figured as much" Kairi replied in a disappointed voice.

"You sound disappointed" Sora noted amused.

"Of course I am! Now, I can't tell her embarrassing secrets about you" Kairi pouted.

"W-what!" Sora spluttered but Kairi ignored him in favour of paying attention to Mrs Hertz who was beginning the class. Sora just sighed thinking that he'll never understand the way his twin sister thinks as he begins to take notes even though he'll just get a low mark anyway.

Strangely enough, instead of starting the lesson like normal Mrs Hertz waited patiently as the whole class quietened down as they realised she was waiting.

"Now Students, I have an interesting surprise for you today. We have a new student from England joining us" Mrs Hertz announced and almost immediately everyone started whispering speculation what gender the person would be, what they'd be like etc.

"There's only one way to answer your questions." Mrs Hertz silenced them all as they waited for her to continue. Instead she turned to the door.

"You can come in now" The door opening and a girl stepped in walking towards the front of the class.

Everyone was stunned by her appearance: she had bright red-orange long choppy hair that reached below her shoulders, she had a full on choppy fringe with chin length strands on both sides of her fringe framing her face; her eyes were a mint green colour.

Her clothes was a tight black off shoulders top that bared her midriff and reached her elbows; her bra straps also showed, but they were black as well, so they weren't that provocative. She had red-orange calf length trousers with lime coloured pumps.

"This is Erin Hughes, due to family circumstances she's transferred in the middle of the term. I hope you will all help her settle in and catch up with all that she's missed" Erin looked around curiously at everyone as if trying to distinguish them individually.

"Welcome to Kadic academy Erin" Mrs Hertz greeted warmly making Erin turn back to face her.

"Thank you Mrs Hertz" Erin returned with a smile.

"Now, we have a lesson to start. Why don't you go and take a seat behind Kairi Shimizu" She pointed so Erin would know where to look.

As Erin walked past Kairi and Sora she sent them both a friendly wink before sitting down.

"Now, today's lesson is on gravity…" Mrs Hertz started writing on the board.

Kairi quickly and quietly turned around to the second new girl in their year.

"Hi there, I'm Kairi the girl that was new until 2 minutes ago" she grinned.

Erin looked up in confusion at her words; then she smiled in reply.

"Why didn't you get an introduction then?" Erin wondered.

"I asked the headmistress to keep my admission quiet" Kairi answered easily.

"I see… Is the boy beside you your brother?" Erin grinned moving her eyes to Sora who had turned around wondering what they were talking about.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Kairi questioned surprised.

"Well, you both look Japanese excluding Sora's blonde hair, not to mention Shimizu sounds Japanese" she answered cheerily.

"I get the feeling you're going to stick to us two like glue" Sora admitted groaning at the thought.

Erin let a cheerful smile cross her face as she gave her answer.

"You're wrong there… I like you two, but the times when I appear to people I like are the times when you least expect it" she told them honestly. With that she went back to her notes and continued writing.

Sora and Kairi shared a look of bafflement at the girl's strange attitude.

_After classes:_

Cherry left the main school building to head straight for the factory where Arti was. Her friend Emerald had martial arts class that evening so she wouldn't be joining her.

Kairi followed her brother just to get a rise out of him.

"Why are you following me?" he asked irritated that he couldn't get a second of privacy from his own sister.

"Well, I don't know the school that well. So don't you think it's only polite that you show me around?" Kairi commented unfazed at his moody attitude.

"Ah, Mr Shimizu!" a big man greeted him; he was wearing a red tracksuit and was walking a miniature terrier bull dog.

"Hi there Jim" Sora waved back.

"I thought we weren't allowed cute doggies like this one at school?" Kairi asked bending down and speaking in baby talk to the dog while stroking him petting him which he just ravished in all the attention.

Jim smiled down at the girl petting the small dog.

"His name's Kiwi, you're right about that rule. But this dog isn't mine; it's the school's… Well originally he belonged to another student who was here as a boarder about 15 years ago, but his parents believe that their child is still around here somewhere and they want their dog to wait for him... Poor Kiwi still hopes that his owner will come and take him back, I see it every night before he goes to sleep as he stares at the door." Jim finished sadly while Kiwi turned a little down at the reminder of his previous owner.

"Awww, poor thing… don't worry I'm sure wherever he is he misses you." Kairi assured patting Kiwi's sad head before it barked in appreciation.

"Who are you, by the way?" Jim realised that she was a new face.

"Kairi Shimizu, I'm Sora's twin sister younger by about 5 seconds" Kairi smiled getting up and bowing like her parents had taught her in greeting.

"I see, well I hope you enjoy your stay at Kadic and I'll see you tonight at training Sora" Jim waved in high spirits walking along so Kiwi could finish his walk.

"So where's the canteen? I'm starving!" Kairi exclaimed not noticing her brother bury his face in his hands despairingly.

_Back at the factory:_

Cherry went to the factory to start on looking for Arti's materialisation program. She seated herself in the chair in front of the monitors and activated it from standby.

"Hello, are you there Arti?" Cherry called.

"Loud and clear Cherry" Arti beamed appearing in a pop up window as he connected with her showing only his head.

"I hope you haven't been too bored while I was gone" Cherry spoke almost apologetically.

"Not at all, I've discovered there's an interface platform above me that I can access by wanting to reach it so I've just been going over the data I can from here trying to see if I can a logical location in the mainframe where you could possibly find the program you need. I can't access them from here, why don't you try looking in the core files or UMB?" he suggested helpfully.

"Alright, thanks I will" she chirped and began looking onto the files.

"So how was school?" Arti asked.

"The same as always." Cherry replied never getting bored of chatting with Arti.

"Anything interesting happen?" Arti inquired.

"Nothing really… oh! We learned about religious influence on human behaviour in the past and today" Cherry remembered.

"What's a religious influence?" Arti asked confused and fascinated.

"Oh, it's a thought stemmed from a religion" Cherry explained.

"What's a religion?"

"A religion is sort of a gathering for groups of people who believe in one common thing. This tends to be God."

"And who's God? Is that person the leader of you all?" Arti questioned further completely taken in.

"Not exactly… he's sort of like a person that no one sees but they know he is there. There are people who claim that God is the leader of us all but it's widely believed that God is just really a figment of imaginations drawn up over time. It's said that he created all the plants and trees we have on Earth"

"Wow, this God sounds amazing… But how does he do all that?" Arti voiced.

"I don't really know myself. I personally don't believe he even exists. But it's just what many people across the world believe there to be some deity that has power over our lives which, frankly I don't find likely " Cherry explained.

For a while Arti marvelled over this information he was receiving just as interesting as hearing about all the art subjects, what humans used to transport themselves from place to place, the colours that attract animals and how humans use them to make themselves look inviting for other humans etc.

"What's the air like?" He asked after a good while. Cherry actually paused in her typing as she thought about the answer.

"The air…? I guess, it's just feels really fresh inside your lungs when you breathe it in… it's like when a new string of fresh new data goes into your hard drive but feels a thousand times better" Cherry tried putting it into a context that he'd understand.

"I see… that sounds amazing." Arti fantasised happiness and excitement clear in his voice and Cherry smiled happy with a small blush thinking she was getting a slight crush on this cute virtual boy.

"Wait a minute Arti, I may've found something" Cherry shushed him before he could ask another question so he stayed quiet watching her type away on the keyboard.

_20 minutes later:_

After a while, Arti was starting to get bored as he leaned back watching Cherry work almost not even realising he was still on screen.

"Cherry, any luck with that program?" he asked becoming restless.

"No, but I've found out some interesting facts while I was at it." Cherry replied smiling at the bored looking boy.

"What you're on is a virtual environment called Lyoko, and at the minute you're currently in a tower in there" Cherry told him.

"Ok, for a virtual universe it's quite small from where I'm sitting" Arti commented looking around to see little screens all around him with data and his platform.

"Why don't you look around and see if you can find a door leading outside of your tower? Cherry suggested.

_On Lyoko:_

Arti stood up from the platform he was sitting on and looked around his tail swaying calmly. The platform he was on seemed to be shaped into some kind of logo. He faced the end that went to the tower wall and walked towards the wall.

He put his paws on the wall and tried looking for something like a handle. But it just came out smooth.

"Cherry I can't find a-!" Arti patted the wall and it rippled it did the same with his other hand before the wall pulled his first hand into the wall along with his body behind it.

_Outside the tower:_

Arti walked out of the tower and was blown away by the orange sandy landscape that he was in.

"Cherry, this is…! I can't explain it, it's something you have to see for yourself" Arti told her looking around as he walked away from the tower.

"I would love to; can you send me a visual?" She requested.

"I'll try" Arti said simply and linked himself directly to the supercomputer and looked around to give Cherry images from his point of view.

_At the keyboard:_

Cherry waited patiently seeing only a blank screen with Arti's life point card until a window opened showing a sort of visual link to what Arti was seeing which showed an incredibly detailed desert landscape with irregularities like in the real life.

"Incredible" Cherry awed.

Just then another window popped up showing a 3d image of a virtual world before a holographic image of Lyoko showed up in the middle of the room which depicted a sphere with 4 very different coloured miniature landscapes that were clearly sectors surrounded by a sphere.

"Arti, it's not just a virtual environment. It's a complete world" Cherry told him in disbelief.

_On Lyoko:_

"I can see about 4 sectors, each one is different from the other" Cherry announced.

Arti looked around as he listened to Cherry.

Suddenly ahead he saw, what looked like from the databases, massive sea animals from the real world.

The two red creatures seemed to notice him and he them. As they turned to face him they seemed rather familiar as they approached.

"Krabs…" Arti said quietly holding his head feeling a slight headache since they triggered a familiar sense.

"What?" Cherry asked from above.

"There are some giant Krabs in front of me. They seem familiar…" Arti answered approaching them with childish curiosity.

"That's wonderful! Lyoko has living creatures to provide their own eco system" Cherry cheered in happiness.

"Can you get closer?" Cherry squealed as Arti walked towards them.

The red Krabs charged up red beams and fired at Arti making him jump back and run as they chased after him.

"Arti, what's going on?"

"They're attacking me Cher!" Arti cried kept running.

"Quickly get back to the tower!" Cherry told him urgently.

Arti ran for his life when a beam hit him square in the back throwing him forward and he skidded to a halt in front of the tower face down momentarily disorientated.

"Arti!" Cherry shrieked panicky as she saw his life points go down.

"Quickly!" she ordered; Arti got up and gasped in fright that they were chasing him still.

He got up and quickly ran to enter the tower, but just as he was a red laser hit him pushing him inside.

Arti collapsed on the platform pathway in a heap exhausted and hurt from his short trip out of his tower.

_Back in the factory:_

Cherry patted the screen willing for his life points to recover, afraid what will happen when they reach zero. As if hearing her wish his life points stopped going down and replenished until Arti had a full set of health again.

"Your life points just recovered" Cherry gasped in amazement at the ability this supercomputer had.

_In the tower:_

Arti woke up slightly dazed and crawled to the centre of the platform to communicate with Cherry.

"That was scary" he admitted as a video stream of Cherry appeared in front of him.

"I think it'll be safer for you to stay in that tower for the time being until I find out why you're there." Cherry told him sternly.

"Ok Cherry" Arti replied.

"I'm sorry; I couldn't find your materialisation program… I'll look later. Right now I have to get back to school" Cherry told him apologetically.

"That's ok, there's no rush. Take all the time you need" Arti smiled and she blushed with faint redness on her face but smiled all the same before logging off.

Arti sat back patiently and waited.

"I wonder if Emerald is going to come back…" he wondered aloud. Not knowing where the lilac haired girl was.

He eagerly awaited Cherry's return.

_The next day:_

Cherry was walking to the canteen to have some lunch when she noticed a bench nearby that was right next to a memorial statue. She went to have a closer look.

Engraved on a plaque on the bench said the words:

**IN MEMORY OF THE 5 STUDENTS WHO STILL LIVE IN THEIR LOVED ONE'S HEARTS**

**THEY SHOWED THE QUALITIES OF KINDNESS, SINCERITY, BRAVERY, WISDOM AND LOYALTY **

**NOT ONLY TO EACH OTHER BUT TO EVERYONE ELSE AS WELL**

Cherry looked to the side to see the names of the students below a portrait of them all. Cherry's vision was suddenly blocked by two hands covering her eyes.

"Guess who?" sang a familiar voice.

Cherry smiled before taking the lax hands off her eyes to face her friend.

"Where've you been?" Cherry demanded before hugging Emerald.

"I've had loads of homework to finish and other things as well." Emerald sighed guiltily with exhaustion clear in her breath.

"Never mind, let's have some lunch" Cherry beamed making her hazel eyed friend mirror her contagious smile.

They both strolled towards the canteen, the auburn girl having forgotten what she was looking at before.

Had she managed to have a good look at the picture, she would've seen a blonde and purple haired boy clad in purple clothing. He smiled brightly in the picture as he was hugging a small dog lovingly while standing along with the rest of the group…

_After lunch:_

Emerald went to go and get a drink from the vending machine while Cherry wanted to go back to her room to get her books for the afternoon lessons.

_With Cherry:_

Cherry went into a light jog towards the dorms but unfortunately didn't see the orange haired figure walking along before crashing into it.

Both girls cried out on impact before they were sent down to their respective bottoms.

"Owwww… I'm sorry about that- You're that new girl Erin right?" Cherry realised when Erin lifted her head up showing curious mint green eyes.

"Yeah, I saw you in science. I'm sorry I never knew your name" Erin laughed sheepishly in embarrassment.

"I'm Cherry, Cherry Morel" she introduced while standing and helping Erin up.

"That's a pretty name, in England you'd get picked on for have a weird name like that" Erin commented smiling making Cherry blush slightly.

"Erin's a nice name too" Cherry told her politely.

Even though it was only a polite compliment, the corner of Erin's lips turned upwards as she studied Cherry her eyes full of expectation and approval.

"You seem interesting… I think things are going to be very interesting for you, me and those other two"

_Emerald:_

Emerald walked to the vending machines ignoring the girl and boy who were chatting. It seemed like the girl was just embarrassing the boy more than the other way around.

_The Shimizu twins:_

"Say, do you know any fit boys?" Kairi asked out of the blue while Sora was drinking.

He choked on his drink at the sudden question. "Why would I consider other boys fit? I'm straight!"

"It was just a question. I wasn't asking if YOU considered them fit" Kairi turning her head away saying her retort.

"I just can't win with you…" Sora sighed ducking his head in despair. Kairi smirked at her victory.

"So, like I said do you know any boys I might like?" Kairi repeated.

"Well… what type do you like?" Sora asked trying to avoid the question.

"I love many types really, but I suppose I'd really love the sweet, cute and caring type. I'd want him to be confident, cool and he has to…" Kairi went on talking which Sora almost automatically tuned out especially when a girl with short purple hair walked past wearing an indigo crop top and a white jacket along with a matching short white skirt where she had dark blue knee high boots. She clearly was a year older than him or his sister.

She bought a hot drink from the machine stirring it before walking away to do whatever business she had.

"…in summary, I guess I'm very open to many kinds of boys. That's not the same case with you though is it?" Kairi grinned mischievously at her brother who snapped his attention back to her with an attentive face on as if he had been listening the whole time despite already being caught.

"W-wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered nervously trying to act innocent.

"I saw you checking that girl out. So, do you like older girls instead of younger?" She purred leaning closer trying to pry into her brother's mind like she always managed to do in the past.

"I've got no idea what you're implying" Sora turned his head away in annoyance.

"Come on! It's like you're trying to hide the moon. It's obvious you like that purple haired girl. Maybe I could help you get her" Kairi suggested with a wink.

Sora turned back to his sister pissed off "Maybe, you could lock your mouth shut and bury the key!"

They continued to argue, meanwhile Cherry walked by since she decided to have a soft drink before she went back to her room. She ignored the bickering twins figuring that it was going to become routine amongst all her classes. She put her coin in the slot and selected a Sprite can; she pressed the number button that released it.

Out of nowhere an electrical current came from the button and went through Cherry making her scream in pain.

"Hey, are you alright!" Sora exclaimed after Cherry collapsed against the vending machine, so throwing away his drink into the bin while Kairi was startled by her scream.

Sora rushed beside her and kneeled down seeing how that shock made her violet eyes look dazed and glassy whilst her hair was frazzled out.

"Cherry… right? Come on let's go to the Infirmary" Sora hooked one arm around his shoulders supporting her hooking one arm firmly around her shoulders to keep her steady.

"Kairi, go and tell a teacher what happened" He told her and Kairi nodded, she didn't have to be told twice.

While Kairi hurried to get a teacher Sora stood up helping Cherry up as well and started walking.

As they walked away a logo appeared on the vending machine screen that shows how much credit you've got to use; it pulsed like a heartbeat fuzzing like static before disappearing.

_Later in the Infirmary:_

Cherry came back into reality when she was lying on a bed staring up at a white ceiling. She turned her head tiredly to see Nurse Yolanda setting up the blood pressure equipment.

"Oh, you're finally better" Yolanda said relieved before she checked her blood pressure. Cherry had no objections, she just watched tiredly as the nurse did her job.

"It's nothing very serious. Just a mild electrical shock and shallow burns. Thank you for bringing her here Sora" Yolanda thanked what appeared to be a Japanese boy who from Cherry's memory was from her class.

"Glad to hear it's not too serious" Sora smiled nicely.

"Thanks… Sora Shimizu right?" Cherry asked hesitantly as the nurse took the strap off her arm.

"You can call me Sora. You just get some rest" he told her gently going to leave the room.

"I have martial arts class tonight so I'm going to check on you after" He warned before shutting the door.

"What a nice boy" Yolanda commented. Cherry felt a bit dizzy but thanks to her shock Yolanda has given her the school afternoon off since she doesn't want any more accidents to happen today.

Cherry went back up to her room to 'rest' as Yolanda ordered but instead she worked on Arti's materialisation program.

_Later that evening after dinner in the gym:_

Sora was dressed in a maroon vest and dark green trackies sitting on the floor of the gym while he and Jim waited for another to show up.

"Who is this girl anyway Jim?" Sora asked impatiently.

"Well, she's been training with me at the other training nights that you weren't available. I've wanted to pair you two up to train together…" Jim trailed off looking rather sad.

"What's wrong?" Sora became alarmed at his instructor's sudden change in energy.

"You two just reminded me of another boy and girl from 15 years ago. Ulrich and Yumi… They were born fighters them two. I think they had a thing for one another but wouldn't admit it, it never got in the way of their training though." Jim laughed at the memories struggling very hard not to lose face.

"You mentioned that something happened 15 years ago earlier today. What happened then?" Sora delved.

"I'd really rather not talk about it" Jim said quietly.

Sora knew he was holding back but he decided not to push it.

Suddenly Jim stood upright with determination burning in his eyes.

"Right! How on earth did we get onto this depressing topic!? Shimizu, if you turn down the atmosphere like that again I'll make you run laps on the roof! Do I make myself clear?" Jim shouted like a drill sergeant making Sora laugh quietly at how quickly Jim's mood changes. One moment he was sad and down like the world stole something precious to him and the next he was back to his normal hot-tempered self.

"Yes, coach" Sora smiled.

"I'm not late am I?" someone asked entering the gym.

"Miss Cortes, late is anytime over the agreed meeting time. In this case 10 minutes!" Jim snapped sternly.

The girl entered the gym wearing lilac trackies and a matching hoodie with a cream coloured hood. The girl had short lilac hair as well she walked confidently wearing white and cream coloured trainers.

Sora gaped as she walked in and sat down next to him.

It was the same girl from lunchtime.

"Right, both of you introduce yourselves" Jim ordered.

"Sora Shimizu"

"Emerald Cortes"

Sora blushed slightly, that was a very pretty name 'Emerald'.

"Alright, let's pair up and have a quick fight before we go to bed" Jim announced.

Emerald and Sora stood up and walked to the fighting circle. They faced each other, bowed and got into their fighting positions.

Emerald went in with a kick which Sora dodged before he went in with a chop which she blocked. He then tried to swipe her feet from under her but she managed a backflip landing perfectly on her feet again.

Emerald flipped stray bits of her hair away from her face as she regarded Sora seriously.

"You're alright for a girl" Sora complimented impressed in his stance but he wasn't prepared when Emerald quickly performed a spinning kick in mid-air hitting him in the face and knocking him down. She pinned him down by his shoulders while he tried to get her off him.

"You're alright… for a boy" she retorted altering his words from earlier with a smirk.

After struggling for a while they both realised how close they were and blushed; they were about to separate and continue when Jim ended the match.

"That's it for tonight, bow to each other and then we can all go to bed" he told them.

Sora bowed politely with a smile and respect for her; Emerald returned it bowing as well.

"You're a good fighting partner, call me sometime for a spar" Emerald called as she left. Sora left happily; perhaps he had a chance with this girl.

_At 7:50 at the dorms:_

Sora walked happily to his room humming a happy tune, he opened his door to his now shared room and dropped his PE bag in shock.

"What happened in here? This mess!" Sora exclaimed in disgust.

"Coral needed to stretch her claws" Kairi yawned not caring what her brother thought.

Just then a small ginger kitten appeared from under Sora's bed covers looking innocently at him like she had nothing to do with the current mess despite there being slash marks everywhere.

"She's ruined everything! My CD's, clothes, books and even my bed!" Sora pointed in abhorrence at the dark stain on his bed along with the small present Coral left him beside it.

Kairi stood up and walked over curiously to see what her little kitten did so terribly.

"Oh, Sorry about that. I'm just starting to litter train her and she's not very compliant with me on it. Not to mention I can't take her outside because there's no pets allowed at Kadic" Kairi shrugged nonchalantly.

"I think the reason for that is so THIS does not happen! I'm sure the headmistress will be pleased to hear this dear sister" Sora grinned leaving the room shutting the door behind him.

"Meh, we'll find a way won't my lovely little ball of love?" Kairi chirped happily along with her kitten that nestled in her lap lovingly purring in content as Kairi stroked her soft fur.

_With Sora:_

Sora wasn't really planning to tell on his sister, he just needed some time away to cool his head. While he was down the corridor, he figured he might as well check on Cherry and see how she was doing.

_Cherry's room:_

Cherry was searching the supercomputer files she could access from her home computer; but strangely her screen turned off suddenly.

"What's this?" Cherry tried turning her computer back on but it wouldn't. Instead the logo that was on the power source of Lyoko when she switched it on appeared on the screen in red pulsing.

"That's the logo from earlier" she realised.

Then a whirring sound from beside alarmed her. It was her writing Automaton along with her drawing one. They both suddenly had the logo in both of their eyes and approached her.

She shrieked in fear as her robots attacked her.

_Back to Sora:_

Sora heard a cry for help from Cherry's room so he burst down the hall and entered her room only to find two miniature robots sparking her with electricity.

"Hold on!" He cried trying to yank one off her but it seemed to be attaching itself with the electricity.

Sora just managed to get one off but then it started attacking him and so did another one while the third still went after Cherry who tried furiously to get it off her.

Finally Sora kicked one of the automatons into the wall on her bed and karate chopped the other; then the attack stopped.

The two stood for a few moments just breathing slowly to calm down from the sudden attack.

"Your robots seem a bit aggressive… Are you sure you didn't mess up their settings?" Sora questioned jokingly but Cherry clearly wasn't in the mood for jokes right now after nearly being killed.

"It was nothing I did to them. They're not even meant to move" she explained confused.

"So if it wasn't you, then what was it?" Sora crossed his arms wanting an answer.

"I have an idea… but you wouldn't believe me if I told you" Cherry warned turning away hoping he would just leave.

"Why wouldn't I?" Sora laughed in good nature.

Cherry stayed silent so Sora sat down in her chair stubbornly.

"Well, I've got all night. So you might as well tell me now so we can both get some sleep" Sora said plain and simple spinning around on her chair both to annoy her and keep him preoccupied.

It wasn't long until Cherry stopped him spinning her chair anymore with one hand glancing at him with a defeated face.

"Ok, I'm already in neck deep so if you insist you can join me" Cherry eyed him susceptibly which levelled her gaze with unwavering determination.

She then walked calmly towards her door shutting it before turning back around to face Sora.

"Before we begin, tell me if you can keep a secret otherwise there's no point in me telling you anything." Cherry strictly said.

Sora placed a hand on his heart with the other one held up "I swear to keep this secret until the day I die"

"Then follow me, I'll explain on the way" Cherry smirked opening the door and leaving expecting Sora to follow.

_Later at the factory:_

"How'd you find out about this place anyway?" Sora wondered as they walked across the bridge.

"I needed more spare parts for my automatons, so I went scraping around and found it" Cherry answered honestly.

They both got to the ropes and Cherry without fear grabbed one and swung down to the front of the lift.

"Isn't there a safer way down?" Sora called.

"No, there are no stairs" Cherry called back apologetically.

"Oh well" He shrugged before he took a rope and swung down to join Cherry.

As soon as he landed Cherry pushed the button for the lift and the shutters opened. They both stepped inside and pressed the button for going down to the control room.

They both stepped out after the long process of the doors to the lab in the lift unlocking finished.

"So is this the Supercomputer you spoke of?" Sora asked sceptically as he looked at the monitor showing data he didn't understand.

"Yeah, it's as its name suggests. Its _super_ powerful no… scratch that, _mega '_powerful." Cherry responded excited to be showing someone else.

"While I looked around in this, I've discovered that it harbours a virtual world called Lyoko" Cherry smiled smugly.

"What makes you so sure that this isn't just the control centre of the factory?" Sora asked mockingly.

Cherry simply turned to the keyboard and tapped a few keys until a window showing Arti's face came up.

"So what would this be then?" Cherry pointed at Arti who was curiously watching the interaction between the two until they addressed him.

Sora stared in amazement at the level of detail Cherry supposedly put into this AI.

"Hey there Cher!" Arti grinned.

"Nice AI you made there Cher. But still, if you wanted a boyfriend that badly shouldn't you have gone out and found one?" Sora teased.

"Haha… no. This is Arti, an Artificial Intelligence who lives on Lyoko. Though I haven't the slightest idea why he's there though" she put a hand on her forehead to emphasis her frustration.

"Don't try and trick me. You programmed him didn't you?" Sora accused.

"No she didn't" they both turned to Arti who started to speak.

"I woke up when Cherry and Emerald restarted the supercomputer. I remember nothing, my memory is gone" Arti backed up.

"Arti has to hide in a sort of tower, when he leaves he's attacked by monsters" Cherry stepped forward in front of Sora with uncertain eyes.

"I'm telling you Sora. Only I, you and Emerald are aware of this discovery" Cherry pressed pleading for him to believe.

"Wait, are you telling me that Emerald, the girl with lilac hair from year 9 has been down here?" Sora burst in shock.

"Yes, she's my best friend. Only she doesn't know about that thing that wants to kill me" Cherry said unfazed by his outburst.

"Yeah… So what if this is just one giant video game?" Sora asked unsure.

"If that's so, then it's very dangerous. My automatons are only programmed to do their respective tasks and they attacked me!" Cherry pointed out loudly.

Sora went to the computer chair while Cherry kept talking.

"Also when the automatons attacked a logo appeared on my screen. The same ones that were on the monsters on Lyoko" Cherry further expanded.

"This just gets peachier by the minute" Sora laughed spinning in the chair before facing Cherry again.

"So you mean to tell me that that thing wanting to kill Arti also wants to kill you?" Sora asked slowly.

"It appears so…" Cherry agreed.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"If it's this dangerous… shouldn't you shut it down and let the authorities handle it?" Sora suggested hesitantly.

Cherry looked down for a moment "I would love to, but I promised I would help Arti first"

Arti looked away in guilt that she still wanted to help him despite the dangers.

"How can you help him? He's a virtual being who lives on a computer" Sora questioned ludicrously.

"I wish to help him understand why he's on Lyoko and we may be able to materialise him here to Earth" Cherry hopefully replied.

"Materialise a virtual being? Now you're tickling my funny bone, what gives you that idea?" Sora retorted in amusement.

"Don't worry you'll see soon" Cherry smiled confidently.

_On Lyoko in the tower:_

Arti watched the interaction between the two with curiosity and confusion as they headed over to the metal ladder that Arti could just see from his screen. Arti sighed realising they weren't going to come back so he just shut his connection off and sat there meditating until Cherry needed him again.

_Meanwhile back in the scanner room:_

Sora was examining the scanners with awe; it was something straight out of a science fiction novel.

"Cool right? These massive tubes are scanners." Cherry explained walking inside one and waiting for Sora to finish examining it all around before stopping at the opening.

"Unfortunately I've been unable to locate the program to materialise Arti, but I've found the one that allows people to be sent to Lyoko." Cherry paused for a second to see if Sora was listening, so he nodded to acknowledge he was all ears.

"These scanners scan and store your molecular structure, DNA, everything, before storing them onto the supercomputer until the next time you go to Lyoko where it will recognise you." Cherry explained not caring that Sora didn't understand much of it.

"How you get on to Lyoko is that after you've been scanned, your atoms are broken down and sent through the supercomputer. Then finally your atoms are digitalised into an incarnation that is your digital avatar" she finished with a flash of a smile.

"What's the short version?" Sora groaned not having caught a word.

"You're scanned, recognised and virtualised on Lyoko" Cherry repeated slowly.

Sora still looked rather doubtful.

"This can't be real. Virtualisation just isn't possible for humans yet!" Sora protested.

"You still don't believe me? Even after I showed you all this?" Cherry glared angrily.

"That's not it! It just seems like something from a sci-fi" Sora quickly waved his hands in protest quelling her temper with that as she got into a thinking face leaning back against the scanner wall on the inside.

Finally she lifted her head up with an idea.

"Why don't we have a go at it?" Cherry's thoughtful face adorned with a smile.

"Why? It's only possible in science fiction" Sora argued reasonably.

"What's the harm? If nothing will happen, then there shouldn't be a problem with us trying it out" Cherry had a very good argument.

"I guess… But we shouldn't scan ourselves. We don't know what could happen in these scanners once the doors are closed" Sora looked around wearily as if the scanners were gonna jump out at him.

"You're right. I assume that means you have a guinea pig in mind?" Sora looked at Cherry to find her with her hands on her hips and tapping her foot effectively to highlight her expectations of him.

Sora sweat dropped for a second as his mind went blank. Inwardly he cursed his sister for being the more intelligent of the two. Then his face lit up as he remembered what else was sharing their room at Kadic.

"Don't worry I have just the guinea pig in mind" Sora said with an evil grin.

"I need to head back to get it, so just prepare the scanner for when I get back" Sora called jogging back.

_8:40pm Lia's room:_

Lia was made up wearing a teal satin one shoulder ruffle dress with a delicate design on the shoulder. She had her hair in a loose low bun with a white flower in it.

She glared at her clock angrily while it fearlessly did its job changing one digit, revealing the time to be 8:41pm.

Losing patience she flipped her phone open; scrolled down to Sora's number that she got off someone and pressed ring.

_In the Shimizu twin's room:_

Sora loomed over his sleeping sister's form, who was sleeping peacefully on top of her bed in her top and jeans. Sora figured that she was too tired from today to change.

Sora's focus however was on the small ginger ball that was curled up beside Kairi's legs. Coral woke up groggily hearing breathing above her; she looked up to see Sora shadowing over her.

"Guess what kitty? How do you fancy being virtualised?" Sora asked his voice full of mirth.

Before the kitten could even give any sort of response, Sora picked up the little kitten by the back of her neck paralysing it. He then held it close to his chest still ready to stop it if she started struggling.

Quietly he crept on his toes trying to sneak out without his sister hearing, since she was very sensitive to sounds.

Suddenly his phone went off and he cursed himself for not switching it off. Not having time to reject the call that was probably from Lia, he ran for it.

Quick as a bullet Kairi shot up from bed just in time to see Sora bolting from their room with Coral held captive.

"Just wait a minute you!" Kairi yelled running after her kitten.

_In the corridor:_

Lia had given up waiting for Sora to answer so she decided to go and see him in his room.

As she was storming down the hallway Sora suddenly passed her barely even acknowledging she was there. She turned to see where he was going in such a hurry when suddenly a heavy weight barged into her from the side knocking her down.

Lia looked up into the face of an Asian girl looking straight at her.

"Sorry Lia" Kairi apologised before getting up and running after her cat.

"Wait a moment!" Lia cried chasing after them.

_With Erin:_

Erin was sorting out things in her closet having just sorted everything out. She stood in her room before sighing as she looked a picture of her with her parents; she reached out a hand touching the top of the picture.

She slammed it face down with a snap out of frustration.

"Stupid people" she muttered before turning around to head to her wardrobe.

Suddenly she heard a commotion outside in the hallway; cautiously she opened her door and stepped out only to see Sora running down the corridor carrying a small bundle while Kairi chased after him.

Erin could see a girl wearing a teal satin one shoulder ruffle dress walking around the corner looking back as Sora weaved around her; Erin could foresee the incoming crash that Kairi fulfilled when she accidently ran into the other brunette girl. Kairi gave a quick apology before she shot up and went down to race down the stairs while the brunette girl followed her.

Erin had a peek around the corner wondering where they were all heading. She had originally planned to get ready for bed but following them seemed more appealing.

"Here I thought the year would be boring" Erin whistled before hurrying to catch up with them.

_Sora:_

Sora ran towards the boiler room way ahead of the other two chasing him.

Kairi and Lia followed him into the boiler room and dashed inside with Kairi opening the door to see Sora rushing down the steps.

"Where's he going?" Lia wondered accusingly.

"That's what I want to know, why did he take my cat?" Kairi frowned in thought and slight anger.

Both Lia and Kairi raced down the steps to find themselves in the sewers. Neither noticed an orange haired girl follow them with a gigantic grin on her face.

_At the factory:_

Sora just managed to get into the factory thinking he'd lost them; he breathlessly slammed his hand on the down button and breathed a sigh of relief when the shutters closed and the lift started going down.

Kairi and Lia just got there when the lift went down. Lia had complained the whole way through the sewers about them being smelly; Kairi was so glad they were out now.

"Why on earth does he need Coral?" Kairi wondered.

"Maybe he's going to dissect and use her body for a weird science experiment?" Lia suggested dumbly.

"With a kitten?" Kairi gave her a flat stare that clearly said 'Are you stupid?'

"I don't know, but he's definitely going to do something with your kitten" Lia unhelpfully told her.

"Not if I have anything to do with it" she growled and leapt onto the metal ladder that was across them climbing down. Lia soon followed her scared to be wondering into this unknown area.

_Scanner room:_

"There's a good kitty, stay there" Sora cooed coaxing Coral to stay where she was as she wondered why her mistress's brother brought her here.

Sora climbed up the ladder at the side of the room to get into the control room.

"We're good to go Cherry" Sora confirmed and Cherry immediately set to work.

"Ok, let's see if I'm skilled enough" she muttered as she dug into the file to run and then access it.

_With Kairi and Lia:_

Kairi opened the small trapdoor from on top of the lift and jumped down crouching gracefully. While Lia had a less than graceful fall just barely managing not to fall over.

Kairi walked forward into the scanner room looking in awe at the three cabins in the room.

"What are these things? They look like some sort of set of scanners" she wondered walking forwards to examine the one closest to her.

"Maybe they're some sort of Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb" Lia said brightly.

"With cables attached?" Kairi asked in clear disbelief as she looked around at the offending subject.

"Uh… Sure, why not?" Lia shrugged after not being able to come up with a decent explanation. However Kairi ignored her and continued searching for her kitten.

_With Cherry and Sora:_

"I'm starting the process now" Cherry announced starting the program up.

While back in the scanners Kairi found Coral sitting unharmed in one of the massive tubes.

"Oh Coral! That ugly brother of mine didn't hurt you did he?" Kairi squealed rushing into the scanner relieved that Coral was alright. Coral jumped into her mistresses arms in happiness loving her warmth.

Just then Coral sensed something happening and jumped out of the scanner hoping her mistress would quickly follow. But Kairi was only surprised and shocked when the doors to the scanner closed trapping her inside.

"Oh no! They're going to mummify you!" Lia shouted in horror while Coral desperately tried to scratch her owner out of the scanner.

"Lia, I don't know what's happening…" Kairi began calmly making Lia blink.

"But this place is NOT an Egyptian tomb! The keyword is EGYPT-ion! You really think there's one in France" Kairi yelled in annoyance her temper snapping, Lia recoiled from the booming voice that yelled at her from beyond the doors.

_Cherry:_

"Transfer Kitten" she tapped a key and it started scanning Kairi.

"Scanner Kitten" a 3d computer model showed the figure of a girl wearing something that Cherry couldn't quite make out yet. But she could definitely tell that it wasn't a kitten.

"That's not a kitten" Cherry realised as it started to virtualise the object.

"No, that's my sister!" Sora realised as her face became more recognisable and distinguished.

"I don't know how to cancel it!" Cherry panicked.

The computer beeped showing that the procedure was still continuing.

"Help!" a girl's voice screamed from the scanner room below.

"Please don't tell me!" Sora muttered thinking as he heard the recognisable tone. Nonetheless he raced to the ladder and climbed down.

_Kairi:_

Kairi looking around in confusion and panic as a ring moved up and down around the scanner, well scanning her body. She didn't know what was happening at all, and then everything went black as a white flash lit up the whole scanner.

_On Lyoko desert sector:_

Kairi's body materialised before she hovered in mid-air for a moment and fell to the ground unexpectedly.

"Ow, no one said there was a drop" She moaned rubbing her back as she stood up.

"Where am I?" she wondered out loud as she looked around and saw what looked like a virtual landscape.

She then saw her hands and found they were bare but there was no longer any sleeves visible on her arms. And on her feet she could see fringed sandals with her toenails visible and painted sky blue.

She looked down at her clothes only to find that they'd been changed.

Luckily there was a pool of water in this weird desert landscape so she rushed over to it and looked at her reflection. Her whole outfit had changed.

She now wore a one-shouldered, dropped waist sheath-style dress in brown faux suede, with a side zipper. The skirt was trimmed with three tiers of faux-suede fringe. The shoulder/neck edge is trimmed with the same faux-suede fringe and a tapestry ribbon with colourful geometric figures. The belt is a wide strip of faux suede with a ribbon in the centre. It fastens with a leather cord that runs through an eyelet at each end of the belt. The arm cuffs are the same faux suede as the dress, trimmed with fringe at top and bottom, and fastened with a leather cord threaded through a series of eyelets. The ankle cuffs are faux suede with fringed lower edge and ribbon trim at the top

She also wore dark brown fringed sandals and finally a braided leather cord that wrapped around her hair like a halo while her dark brown hair flowed down her back stopping midway. On her face she had two blue face painted stripes on the side of each cheek like native american facepaint.

She had a composite bow attached to her back with nothing holding it in place however the laws of physics wouldn't apply and it stayed on her back held diagonally.

"I look like a Native American princess" Kairi gasped amazed loving her outfit.

"Kairi Shimizu?" a voice called from above startling her.

"Who's there?" Kairi asked looking up to see where the female voice was coming from.

"Cherry. Cherry Morel." The voice introduced itself.

"Well Cherry, not that I'm complaining but is this some sort of sick joke that my brother forced you into?" she questioned suspiciously.

"Not exactly… It's no joke, and I wasn't forced into anything. It was rather the other way around." The girls shared a giggle at the comment.

_With Sora:_

Sora jumped down the ladder and nearly fell over in disbelief not believing she had followed him. Lia was looking rather startled by Erin who was smiling friendly like at her.

"Lia? Erin?"

Lia whirled around with a look of extreme relief at the sudden shock while Erin looked slightly surprised at his appearance in the room.

"Sora" Lia said loudly in relief going to run to him but was stopped by a voice.

"Sora have no fear, your sister is safe on Lyoko." Cherry said on the intercom system.

"That's good news" Sora sighed glad his sister wasn't hurt.

"What's this Lyoko place?" Erin asked curiously.

"Oh yeah, why are you here?" he questioned suspiciously.

"I told you, I only appear when you least expect me" Erin easily replied back.

_Back on Lyoko:_

"Is this a video game? It looks like the graphics for Myst" Kairi noted looking around.

"I don't know exactly, but it's definitely a virtual world" Cherry answered.

"That's brill!" Kairi cheered. But her excitement was short lived when she felt a sharp and sudden sting hit her back.

"OW!" she cried and turned to find two giant red crabs approaching her.

"That's not brill at all, are these giant red crabs meant to be here?"

"Yes" Cherry told her shyly.

"So I shouldn't be concerned that they're shooting at me?" Kairi raised an eyebrow in question as one charged up a laser beam.

"Nope, concern is exactly what you should be feeling. Get out of there"

Kairi didn't doubt her and ran not willing to find out what happens when her life points reach zero as the crabs kept shooting at her.

_In the scanner room:_

"Sora, you need to help Kairi. She's in danger but I need time to devirtualise her" Cherry pleaded.

"She can handle herself for a little while. In the meantime, send me, Erin and Lia to Lyoko. After all, we know that it works now and Kairi will need all the help she can get" Sora grinned smugly.

"OK, get in the scanners you three" Cherry commanded.

"Wait, where are we going?" Lia demanded scared as she grabbed Sora's arm to stop him from entering a scanner.

Sora turned and smiled with a devilish smile.

"To a virtual world where danger lurks at every corner… This is the only offer I'll give you to go out with me. Take it or leave it"

"I'm good thanks, I'm much better with real worlds" Lia shook her head and Sora chuckled as he walked past her into a scanner.

"Your loss, Peabrain" Sora jibed turning to face her in the scanner.

"What about you? I never imagined you to be a fearful person" he asked Erin who was beside Lia.

"No believe me; I would love to go to Lyoko it sounds exciting." Erin assured before patting Lia's shoulder.

"But to look after a special child you need two parents" she grinned knowing full well that Lia was glaring at her but she didn't mind.

"That's true! Cherry, I'm all set" Sora laughed.

"Right, one trip to Lyoko for the fearless passenger and an invitation to join me in the control room for the body in there as well as the lovely mistress from England." Cherry announced like a bellringer as the scanner doors closed and Lia shouted in indignation.

"I'm a person!" she screamed.

"I thought a 'person' needed a brain" Cherry threw back.

"Ohhh, Ice-burn!" Sora taunted from inside the scanner.

"You shut up while I virtualise you!" Cherry snapped quickly straightening him out.

_In the scanner:_

Sora looked around as the ring scanned his body before closing his eyes as a warm blast of air blew up making all his clothes and hair go up.

"Transfer Sora"

"Scanner Sora"

Sora felt the scanner begin to increase the wind being blown before everything turned white and he couldn't see anymore.

"Virtualisation" she tapped enter.

_On Lyoko:_

Kairi managed to run away from the monster and got to a big sandy rock stopping when Cherry called out to her.

"You have a visitor Kairi" Cherry sang.

"Ah, I've missed seeing my dear brother's face so" Kairi sighed dramatically.

Just then Sora's body was creating in mid-air into virtual form; he hovered for a moment before dropping to the ground unexpectedly.

Kairi winced as he landed before smiling kindly. Sora groaned as he got up before looking down at his attire.

Sora wore a black short sleeve Chinese shirt with red button strings and a dark blue sash around his waist with the end trailing down his left side stopping at his thigh. He wore dark blue Chinese trousers that were tightened at the ankles and black slip on shoes; on his arms he had black forearm sleeves.

"Cool outfit" Kairi whistled while Sora noticed that there was a small red stick in his sash on his left hand side. He took it out and it suddenly extended itself scaring the hell out of him.

Then he examined it in awe as it revealed a Qasalan double bladed staff. Tricky to handle but effective against enemies.

"Wow! This staff is legend" He exclaimed happily giving it a little expert twirl.

"Awww, I wish I got a double bladed staff too" she grumbled jealously.

"How are we dressed like this anyway?" Sora asked.

"I don't know, maybe the computer looks into your subconscious desires and then projects them into your avatars" Cherry answered logically.

"But this bow is no good without any arrows. How do I use it?" Kairi complained detaching it from her back and holding it in front of herself.

She put a hand on the other side of the handle where her other hand was holding it before she trailed back to pull back the string as if a real arrow was there. As she pulled the string back an Indian style arrow materialised over her thumb in position to be fired.

Kairi was startled by this and without warning released the string like she had touched fire sending the arrow flying straight towards Sora. He barely managed to avoid it.

"Hey, I could've lost an eye there!" Sora warned.

"Whoa, that's pretty cool" Kairi laughed happily twirling her bow in one hand.

"What about short range fighting?" she realised wondering how she was supposed to fight someone close up to her.

"What's that in your belt?" Sora pointed and Kairi looked to see a spearhead with a small handle; she put her bow back on her back before taking out the spearhead.

Like Sora's staff it suddenly extended in her hand revealing it to be a light blue Tepoztopilli spear that was a little above her height.

"Wow, it looks as if you've got an ancient Aztec weapon. A Tepoztopilli, a cross between a spear and a halberd; it seems to be fairly good for close combat." Cherry commented whistling.

"I've always liked the Aztecs, they are such an interesting race" Kairi positively beamed to be getting a virtual old weapon as she spun it with energy.

_In the factory:_

The heavy lift doors opened up to Erin and Lia to reveal a massive room with a holographic image in the centre with a small compute monitor with cables all around connecting everything.

Both Erin and Lia gasped in astonishment at the advanced technology around. Coral meanwhile simply sauntered in with kitten like grace unlike her human companions.

Cherry didn't notice the two come closer to her as she was too engrossed in the computer.

"Try to get to Arti's tower, give me a tic to give you coordinates" Cherry started tapping a few keys.

"Is this Arti some sort of girlfriend to Sora?" A shrill voice from beside her spoke making Cherry jump and turn to be faced with Lia.

"Are you brain dead? Does Arti sound like a girl's name to you?" Erin deadpanned.

"Well, it could be…" she argued weakly making Erin scoff before addressing Cherry again.

"So what's this thing anyway?" She wondered.

"It's the mainframe of a supercomputer" Cherry told her easily going to type a few commands in. However all of a sudden an eye logo appeared on the screen of the monitor.

"This again!" Cherry cried out in horror.

They all heard a crackle of electricity and turned to see the cables come to life sparking electricity as well as fear into the females in the room. One cable faced them with its head and fired an electric bolt at them which they narrowly dodged followed by a barrage of bolts.

_Lyoko:_

Kairi and Sora walked calmly through the desert waiting for Cherry's voice to tell them where to go.

"Who's Arti?" Kairi asked remembering Cherry's orders.

"A virtual boy who lives on Lyoko" Sora told her promptly.

"You means there are fit boys here too? Awesome!" Kairi cheered.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up, I think Cherry's head over heels for him" Sora commented amused.

"For a virtual boy? is she alright?" Kairi put her hand on her hip as she stopped walking wondering how you could fall in love with a virtual being.

"I think so" Sora laughed, stopping alongside his sibling.

"Cherry, can we have the coordinates?" Sora called but no reply came back.

_In the lab:_

"Cherry. Cherry! Cherry are you even listening!?" Sora shouted from the computer.

Unknown to the virtualised siblings Cherry was currently under attack from electric bolts being fired at her from tentacle like cables.

Coral had her hair standing on end and was hissing angrily at the living cables while Lia tried urging her to do something.

Erin gave a cry as she charged against the living cables to get them to stop but was electrocuted on the spot making her collapse.

_Lyoko:_

Kairi looked around while Sora waited for Cherry's reply; and saw what she thought was a tower with a teal glow around it.

"Look there's a tower, it could be that one" she pointed.

They both ran to the tower expecting to see a door that allows it to be entered.

"Where's the door?" Sora wondered patting the wall when suddenly he was sucked in.

Sora got sucked in the tower so abruptly that he barely noticed a platform a little away from him meaning he had entered from the side rather than the proper door.

Kairi followed after him thinking he had entered the door and screamed when she fell following her brother down the tower into what she thought was a bottomless pit.

They both saw the data screens around them change as they yelled their lungs in fear and rode the data stream.

Then the platform appeared again and they both floated up and landed on the platform before quickly walking towards the exit thinking to look for another tower.

_Outside the tower:  
_

When they exited instead of an orange barren desert region they were expecting, they were greeted with a narrow purple rock pathway that lead to more rocks and mountains in the distance that were covered in a fog as was the ground below their platform which originally had a sea in the other sector.

"Um, where is the desert?" Kairi asked dumbly.

"I presume back where we started" Sora answered as they both scanned the landscape.

"Don't you think that tower over there is weird?" Kairi asked pointing over at the tower in the distance.

"Weird? how?" Sora questioned confused seeing the tower.

"Well, why does it have a red glow instead of a teal glow?" she emphasised.

"Why do you think I know the answer?" Sora snapped at her.

"You knew about this place well before me" Kairi retorted.

"Speaking of which, are those creatures' friends of yours?" Kairi pointed behind Sora and he turned to see 3 Tarantulas heading their way.

"No, no they are not. Run!" Sora shouted as they started firing lasers from their legs while they walked.

_In the Lab:_

Lia shrank back in the lift while Erin tried to pry the cables off of Cherry which were wrapped around her so the electric bolts could possibly hit, but Cherry still managed to avoid them.

Finally one stray cable thwacked Erin to the side with a sickening bang as she hit the wall and slid down unconscious.

_Back on Lyoko:_

Somehow, the Tarantulas trapped the two surrounding them in a triangle while shooting at them. Kairi had her Tepoztopilli (Tepoz for short) in hand since she was in close range combat and it would be difficult to aim and fire her arrows with this barrage of lasers around her; Sora wielded his double bladed staff blocking the attacks expertly.

They felt outnumbered especially with the seemingly endless barrage of laser firing at them from all sides.

Sora wished he could be in all three places at the same time; then suddenly he saw another him behind the Tarantula in front of him.

"When'd you get over there Sora?" Kairi cried looking behind her to see her brother still there.

"It must be a power" Sora smirked as all three Tarantulas' turned around to see Sora there and stood up to whack him with their legs but the Sora bodies went static almost as soon as they were touched and vanished.

This gave Sora and Kairi plenty of time to launch counterattacks. Kairi switched her weapon for her bow; she quickly materialised an arrow and fired and it hit the Tarantula's body but didn't seem affect it.

"How on earth do we defeat these things?" Kairi shouted in exasperation as her Tarantula turned its head around with one leg and fired a few shots.

"Watch out Kairi!" Sora yelled but Kairi was too slow, so she shut her eyes and hopelessly willed the laser beam to not hit her.

She waited a few seconds but nothing happened except she could still hear the sound of laser fire.

She opened her eyes and was surprised to find the Tarantula still firing at her, but she looked down to find that it was going right through her.

"Wicked! I can go intangible" Kairi cheered as the Tarantula increased its firing in irritation.

"Say, would your powers happen to tell us how many life points we have?" Sora asked quickly dodging and blocking the lasers with his staff.

"I don't think so-whoa!" suddenly a laser made contact with her and she fell to the ground devirtualised.

"Kairi!" Sora screamed looking back at the disappearing body of his sister.

His eyes showed anger; he charged in at the Tarantula who shot her and stabbed one end of his staff into the eye on the Tarantula's head before jumping off.

The Tarantula never saw him coming so it stumbled a little before exploding making Sora smirk in satisfaction before a laser hit him and he too was devirtualised.

_In the scanner room:_

Sora's scanner opened revealing an achy and slightly tired blonde Japanese boy.

"What a cheap shot" he grumbled.

"At least your power didn't fail you" Kairi groaned from across the room.

"Well, every power has limits" Sora told her wisely getting up while she followed suit.

"Yeah! Yeah!" she rolled her eyes.

"Somebody! Help!" someone screamed making the twins jump. They both recognised the voice to be Lia; they both rushed up the metal ladder.

_In the lab:_

Sora and Kairi went up and saw Cherry wrapped in coils of cable wires struggling madly while Lia was in the lift crying in terror.

"Do something Sora" she begged tearfully.

The cables charged up a bolt at point blank range at Cherry who was screaming for the thing to let go. Sora saw a metal plate on the floor; so he grabbed it and swung it into a cable cutting halfway into it. Kairi did the same thing with another cable holding Cherry.

However the twins didn't anticipate electricity to course through their bodies until they let go and fell to the ground dizzy and weak.

Cherry looked at the charged up bolt in horror before looking away as it was about to fire. Suddenly the electricity stopped charging and Cherry along with everyone else in the room looked to see Erin had another metal plate wedged in one of the already halfway cut cables.

"I told you, I only appear when you least expect me" she winked before slicing off the rest of the cable head to which it fell to the floor and the rest of the cables let Cherry go before going back into place.

The room went quiet as the attack died down and Lia opened her eyes before stepping into the room hesitantly.

Everyone got up wearily and walked towards the computer.

They all gathered around the monitors including Coral the kitten who jumped into her owners arms as Cherry sat in the computer seat returned it from standby state. The supercomputer loaded and everything appeared normal.

"Arti, are you there?" Cherry called typing a few keys and almost immediately a pop up window opened revealing a boy with hair spiked up to a point in a purple cat costume.

"Yes, I am. But are you all ok?" Arti asked his amber eyes filled with worry.

"Just a bit shaken up" Cherry assured before she began making plans with everyone in the room what they were going to do about Arti before heading home.

"It looks like we're in for more than we all bargained" Erin commented grimly as they left.

All of them were very unaware that a red tower was still glowing on Lyoko its' just waiting for the perfect opportunity.

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There it is my first fanfic on Code Lyoko and my second fanfic overall. I really hope I did alright, I did my very best to not make it like a plain copy and added and changed bits for the story.

**_ok update: i realised ages ago that the links for the costume inspirations aren't working so because i've given up trying, just PM me if you really want the links.  
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**_note: Sora's outfit is based off Ranma Saotome's wardrobe._**

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I hope I did alright with this story please read and review so I know what you thought. :)


	2. And how it will begin again

Chapter 2:

The beat from "Lay all your love on me" by ABBA travelled through the gymnasium bouncing off the walls some of the sounds escaping outside. No lyrics were coming out, so as to not distract the only occupant in the room. In the gym a huge blue mat was set out and in the middle was an orange haired girl wearing a red leotard making shapes with a blue patterned ribbon in time with the music. She rolled and tucked and leaped always keeping the ribbons long tail trailing behind her following her like fairy dust.

She threw the ribbon high in the air and Erin ran and jumped landing on her hands and pushing herself back up to land perfectly on the hard floor of the gym. Immediately she did a cartwheel to avoid the edge of the mat and wheeled into the splits before continuing her routine catching her ribbon on the way.

She twirled the ribbon expertly around her making it twirl around her in a dazzling long strip of blue ribbon circling her.

She had asked Jim if she could borrow the Gym in the mornings to practise her routine since there were the regional finals coming up soon. He said yes on the condition that she doesn't disturb anyone else and she puts all the equipment away when she was finished.

Kairi walked into the gymnasium searching for her new friend and watched in amazement as Erin floated on the mat somehow, her feet barely touching the ground. She was currently twirling her ribbon around herself preparing for the big finish. She lifted her leg to toss her ribbon under it and over herself and moved into a cartwheel while her ribbon went up.

Unfortunately she went too fast into the cartwheel, so the end of her ribbon caught and wrapped around her ankle, distracting her and causing her to lose balance collapsing in a heap with the long ribbon draped over her.

"Are you done?" Kairi inquired looking a bit despondent at it being over already.

Erin ignored her presence looking quite pissed off while the music ended.

"Damn, I still can't get it right" she vented at herself throwing the ribbon from her head onto the mat in frustration; she buried her face in her hands feeling agitated and needing to calm down.

"What are you talking about? That was one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen excluding the ending" Kairi told her in marvel coming forward to pick up the ribbon chucked down on the floor.

"That's exactly it. The ending! I made that move for the finals specifically but I can't get the timing right!" Erin explained in desperation.

"Why don't you just go for a simpler move?" Kairi suggested moving the ribbon around rather fast and hard making strict but not flowing shapes like Erin did.

"Kairi, the more difficult a routine, the higher score you can get. If I add the finish in, it raises my difficulty to 9.000 rather than 8.000 giving more potential for a higher score depending on how well I execute it." She explained calmly taking her ribbon back and twirling it in her gentle manner.

"Well, difficulty or not you won't be able to perfect any move without breakfast" Kairi scolded bossily.

Erin rolled her eyes "Yes mum" she saluted.

They both tidied the gym putting away the equipment, Erin changing her clothes before heading to the canteen for breakfast chatting away without a care in the world.

_At the canteen:_

Sora flicked a stray blonde hair from his face as he ate his croissant; he felt extremely self-conscious with Lia watching him as he ate.

"Good morning sunshine!" Kairi greeted sitting at the table with her breakfast on her tray along with Erin.

"What took you so long? Normally you're here before me" he asked.

"I had to collect Erin on the way; she was practising for the rhythmic ribbon regional finals coming up" she explained dipping her croissant in her sauce.

"You do Gymnastics?" Sora looked surprised at Erin looking her over.

"Yeah I started at 5. Why is that surprising?" Erin questioned nibbling on her toast.

"You don't seem like the type to do gymnastics, I honestly imagined you'd be more into skateboarding and boxing" he confessed shyly and Erin laughed loudly.

"I've never heard that one before" she choked in her laughter while everyone looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"Speaking of types, where's your computer geek?" Lia wondered looking around for Cherry.

"She's just been up all night with little sleep evaluating what happened yesterday" Kairi explained in a displeased tone.

"All night? That's not good" Erin commented in disapproval.

"I hope we shut the computer down soon, otherwise Cherry will spend every night like this and wane away due to her work like Marie Curie" Sora agreed crossing his arms and copying the others actions.

Everyone at the table grew silent three of them had their arms crossed with their heads down and eyes closed. Lia looked around at all of them before nervously speaking up.

"Ummm… Who's Marie Curie?"

Everyone looked up to give her a three way flat stare.

_In Cherry's room:_

"I've looked at yours and the twin's virtual programs. It seems that you can't be devirtualised if you lose your life points. You'll disappear if that happens." Cherry explained.

"That's a disappointment… but I now know how to change sectors now" Arti beamed optimistically.

"Oh yeah!" Cherry exclaimed.

"I just remembered. You know that red tower that was on Lyoko that Kairi and Sora saw?"

"What about it?" Arti pressed curiously.

"Well, I've discovered through the supercomputer that they're links to the real world when activated. That red tower those two saw was one of them." Cherry pointed out.

"Ok, that's interesting and all but… What exactly are these links used for?" Arti questioned.

"Well for one they could materialise you to Earth" she sang.

"You mean…?" he gasped at Cherry in disbelief.

"I know! Exciting isn't it? I can't wait to tell everyone and everything will be over" Cherry chirped.

"See, I knew you could do it. You don't know how grateful I am Cher!" Arti cheered loudly throwing his arms up.

The door slammed open revealing a Spanish lilac haired girl in her typical outfit.

"Cherry! My best friend has found more friends" She was literally on the verge of proud tears before she rushed over to hug her startled friend.

"Em? What are you doing here?" Cherry gasped from the crushing hug blatantly aware that Arti was still online.

"Why to see you of course! I'm so happy you've found friends of your own age now! Maybe soon it'll happen with me" she gushed.

"Hi there Emerald" called a voice and they both looked to see Arti waving happily.

"Oh hey Arti, I didn't know you could connect with Cher's computer" Emerald greeted letting her friend go.

"Yeah she can connect with me on Lyoko via private internet connection that cannot be intercepted" he replied.

"And pretty soon you'll be meeting him in real life" Cherry bubbled jumping in excitement.

"That's brill!" Emerald congratulated.

"I know right? Soon Arti will be real…" Cherry trailed off going into a daydream imagining what life would be like with Arti on Earth.

"You can't wait to kiss him?" Emerald teased snapping Cherry back to Earth.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Cherry screamed in agitation that she wouldn't drop the not-so-secret crush while Emerald snickered at her expense.

"What's a kiss?" Arti innocently asked.

"Well Arti my lad it's-"

"-Nothing to be concerned about yet!" Cherry cut off panicking rushing in front of Emerald to the screen so she was blocking her.

"Yet…" Emerald repeated smirking.

"Shut up" Cherry glared at her friend so intensely that Emerald had an actual fear that her gaze would actually melt her.

"I-In any case, shouldn't we tell the others who know about Lyoko? They'll be excited to hear not to mention I can't wait to meet them" Emerald moved on going to leave the room but turned when she saw Cherry sit back down and continue typing on her computer.

"Just wait a bit I also found something else on here when I found I could materialise Arti. There seems to be some evidence that someone else has accessed the supercomputer before us after the original creator whoever they may be. You see here? The codes are different from the original setting and stored in a different file." Cherry pointed showing two versions of the same program except the second one was incomplete like it had lost some data.

"So the program has gone back to its original settings?" Emerald questioned.

"Yes, and it appears to be a sort of scan. But for what I'm not sure I want to look into it more..." Cherry mused when suddenly Emerald held her by the shoulders and looked at her exasperated.

"Cherry, Arti is going to be with us on Earth soon. After that it won't matter who created the supercomputer or who accessed it before us, because we'll have Arti" Emerald told her friend gently.

Cherry looked at Arti on the screen who was watching her hopefully and her worried look changed into a smile.

"You're right I'm being silly" she laughed as her friend let go and they both got up to leave the room.

Emerald went on ahead while Arti disconnected himself. Cherry lingered a moment longer in her room.

"Still… I feel that it will be relevant in the future but I don't know how yet." She muttered feeling ominous before leaving.

_Outside in the courtyard:_

The others all were currently sitting on a wooden bench while Cherry told her news. Emerald was sitting at the end with her legs off the side, after her was Sora who was sitting on top of the back rest with his feet on the seat, his sister Kairi was in the same position only her legs were closer together and finally Erin was sitting sideways with her legs stretched out across the bench underneath the twins legs. Lia was behind the bench leaning on the top next to Sora leaning on her crossed arms.

"You want us to go to Lyoko to bring Arti to the red tower?" Kairi questioned sceptically after Cherry finished explaining.

"That's the only shot we have of materialising Arti, I know it's unbelievable." Cherry answered.

"Don't you mean dangerous? That attack could've killed us" Erin spoke up.

"Erin's right, we should shut off the computer. I know you want to materialise Arti but he's not even human" Sora rationalised.

"But he's still an intelligent being. He thinks for himself and has emotions like we do" Cherry defended vehemently.

Erin, Emerald, Kairi and Sora looked at each other with a knowing look.

"We knew you liked him" Erin voiced.

"Please! that does not prove I like him." she waved off annoyed.

"I just want you all to go one final time, is that so much to ask?" she implored.

"We'd love to, but I and Kairi couldn't get past the monsters maybe since Erin and Emerald want to go, four of us can handle it. It'd be even better if five of us went but Lia's too scared" Sora sneered at her.

"No, I'll go to Lyoko with you today. But I'll come after Netball practise" Lia promised.

"That means a lot Lia" Cherry thanked gratefully.

"So it's agreed. We all get Arti into the red tower and materialise him onto Earth after which I'll shut down the supercomputer… To avoid unnecessary worry and panic this needs to be kept as a secret between us" Cherry told them strictly.

Emerald raised her hand first "Promise"

Kairi went next "Cross my brother's heart and hope he dies"

After came Sora "Me three- hey!"

Erin raised hers in a determined swear "I swear too"

Lia put her hand up with everyone else's with an enthusiastic wave "Same".

Cherry looked relieved that no one was going to blow the secret.

"I'll bet I'll look pretty sexy on Lyoko Sora" Lia purred at Sora with a wink.

"I'm betting you'll look pretty stupid" Kairi laughed.

"Shut up you!" Lia cried pushing herself up to glare at her.

Just then Emerald and Sora shared a look; then a smile before both stood up and walked away.

"Sora, aren't you going to watch me play netball?" Lia asked disappointed.

"No, I've got better things to do" he told her disinterestedly.

When he disappeared with Emerald, Lia's pretty face turned into a scowl.

"What has that vixen got that I don't?" she practically growled.

"Looks, wit, intelligence… do want more? I mean the list goes on" Kairi quipped.

Lia huffed before walking away to change into her netball uniform for practise.

_Meanwhile with Sora and Emerald:_

They both entered the unoccupied gym to complete their match from last night. Sora blushed slightly when Emerald pulled down her white skirt to show she was wear white shorts underneath; she was completely not embarrassed as she tossed it to the side along with her blazer. Wordlessly during which Sora's blush calmed they both walked to the centre circle to get to their starting positions.

"I hope you put up a better fight today than yesterday" Emerald teasing.

"Let's just hope you don't get distracted then, because I'm not holding back" Sora told her confidently.

Emerald smiled appearing truly happy before she bowed to begin their match waiting for Sora to follow which he did soon after. They both raised their heads and began circling each other enjoying the friendly spar as they put on fighting poses.

Sora then went in for the attack which Emerald anticipated and stepped back allowing the punch to miss her. Another came her way but she blocked it and karate chopped his side winding him but allowing him the opportunity to kick a blow to her stomach knocking her back. They both stopped for a minute to allow their breath to return after their mutual fierce blows.

"Y-you're def-definitely showing more po-potent-ial than yes-terday" Emerald gasped out struggling to get her breath back quickly.

"Y-you too. I-it's like y-yes-terday was just ch-childs-play for you" Sora forced out equally winded.

They both recovered in around 10 seconds before rushing at each other with grins on their faces.

_On Lyoko in Arti's tower:_

Arti was sitting in a relaxed position calmly with his eyes closed as this was his way to meditate, since from what little he could remember meditation was feeling completely at peace and relaxed which extended to his sitting position.

Arti grew aware of a faint beat like a pulse; gradually it grew louder to his sensitive ears. He opened his eyes to make sure he wasn't hearing things but the pulsations continued loud in his ears almost as if they were a vibration within him. He stood up thinking maybe Cherry was doing something to cause it.

"Cherry, you there? Are you doing something? Cherry?" he asked aloud hoping she would respond but alas she didn't.

He could still feel the pulsations that were coming from outside the tower. He walked to the end of the platform where the door was. He was about to exit but remembered Cherry's words.

The logical side of him said to wait for Cherry to respond and stay in the tower whilst his instinctive side was to follow the pulsations.

Going with instinct and somehow knowing that it was going to be the right one; he stepped forward and placed both paws on the door, which were immediately sucked in as he continued walking forward through the door.

_Outside the tower:_

Arti walked out from the tower in the desert landscape and felt the pulsations even stronger and were coming from a more specific direction. He looked at the floor and could see red vibrations from the ground that led in the direction of a way tower.

He took off after them without having a thought about the red Krabs he had seen earlier that seemed to have disappeared.

_20 minutes Later with Emerald and Sora:_

Both of the two were out of breath having been sparring non-stop for 20 minutes.

"How long have you been into martial arts?" Sora asked gaining his breath whilst they both took a breather.

"8 years now, my parents were and still are reluctant to let me practice since they're scared I'll abuse my so called 'destructive power' or at least that's how they see it" Emerald made quotation marks with her hands.

"Why is your karate 'destructive' to them?"

"I have no idea at all. They probably think I'll misuse it or something" she said dismissively.

"Are your- I'm guessing Portuguese parents that strict?" Sora asked incredulously.

Emerald frowned at the assumed heritage and promptly without warning kicked Sora's legs from under him. He fell down to the floor with a yell landing on his back looking up whilst Emerald stood over him looking quite dangerous as she described only moments ago.

"I'm Spanish, not the same as Portuguese! Get your geography right" She reprimanded harshly taking offense.

"Sorry, I'm terrible at recognising nationalities" he repented immediately.

She smiled "So long as you've learnt your lesson"

Sora then smirked and pulled her legs from under her toppling her over suddenly; pinning her to see her shocked face.

"Ready to continue?" he asked and she smirked back blowing a hair from her face before she kicked his stomach knocking him back so she could get up and they could continue their match.

_Back on Lyoko:_

Arti was still following the pulsations as he exited the way tower and was greeted with many trees around him. He cautiously looked around to see if any monsters were around before running ahead across the platform.

Suddenly lasers were being shot behind and he instinctively leapt behind the big hollow tree stump to escape it. He carefully and with fear pounding in his heart looked around one of the narrow passageways only to see the two red Krabs from before waiting for him to come out.

"What do I do?" he bit his lip in thought wishing that Cherry was there.

Still Arti had a gut wrenching feeling that he most definitely needed to follow the pulsations still. He knew that it was most likely nothing and extremely risky, since he would be gone forever if the monsters managed to hit him. But he absolutely needed to get to the next way tower which the pulsations were surely leading to.

_In the dorm rooms:_

Lia walked back to her room wearing her blue and white netball dress after a good 2 hours of practise. She was very happy how it all went although she was disappointed that Sora didn't watch and instead went with Emerald. Lia scowled at the thought of having to put up with the girl since she shared the secret with the others.

When Lia put her hand on her bedroom handle she remembered the creepy boy who had been following her was still behind her. She groaned in remembrance at the embarrassing cheering from the side lines of the netball court which her teammates teased her for. Frankly she was glad she had been able to block him out for the walk back but now regretted not sending him away earlier.

"Who are you and why are you following me?" she demanded turning around.

"Oscar and I really admire you. You're like my idol I even started a website for people who liked you to join" he chirped happy just to talk to his goddess.

"So how many members do you have?" she asked with sweet ice laced in her voice.

"O-only me" he admitted nervously and her smile turned into an annoyed look.

"Then don't talk to me until there are at least 10 members; if you don't leave me alone I shall file a restraining order on you" she snapped before entering her room and slamming the door in his face whilst he grinned dreamily at seeing her angry face.

"She's perfect" he sighed as he walked away intent on winning her heart in the future.

_Lia's room:_

Lia shuffled through her extensive wardrobe filled with a mixture of different outfits. She figured that she should dress to impress if she was going to Lyoko so she would at least look pretty.

She hummed happily as she put clothes against her body not noticing that her plug socket under her dressing table sparked before shooting out a thin bolt of electricity.

Lia heard the spark and turned around confused before shock and then terror struck her as she witness the electricity bolt go into the centre of the room and then more charge was added and it started spinning growing darker as it grew bigger.

Lia felt a strong pull towards the mini black hole as it grew really big. She yelled as it grew to nearly her size and there was a mighty pull on her dragging her off her feet.

She screamed as she clung for dear life onto her bed; she didn't notice her wardrobe wobble slightly before toppling over onto her whacking her head before she was pinned to the floor by her wardrobe. She remained limp on the floor while the mini-black hole sucked and crushed all the small enough objects in the room.

The door flew open to reveal an extremely worried Oscar who came running as soon as he heard the scream. He gasped seeing the black hole which just as suddenly shrank itself away into nothingness leaving no trace that it was ever there.

"Lia are you alright?" Oscar cried scared for her rushing to her side; she made no movement.

Oscar tried with all his strength to lift up the heavy wardrobe but he couldn't even nudge it. Reluctantly he left to get a teacher to help him.

_Meanwhile with Cherry and Kairi:_

They both decided to go to the library to get some individual work done. Cherry tapped away on her laptop while Kairi worked on her Physics homework.

"Yes!" Cherry tapped enter on her keyboard before whispering her cheers.

Kairi meanwhile not caring was stuck on a certain part of her homework.

"During the time I was searching for Arti's materialisation I found this hidden file that contained a program called 'Return to the past'. Unfortunately it had been locked so no one could activate it but I cracked it" Cherry told her friend gleefully who looked up when she returned to her laptop.

"Since you're done with that Miss Einstein do you think you could help with my physics?" Kairi requested hopefully.

"Are you going to keep calling me that Kairi?" Cherry asked remembering that she had been called that all day since she'd been with Kairi.

Kairi shrugged in reply "Why not? It suits you" she grinned making Cherry blow up a stray hair in annoyance.

"Hey guys" a bubbly voice greeted making both girls look up to see Erin grinning happily at the two.

"Erin, I thought you were still practising for the regionals in the field" Kairi beamed at her new friend who sat down beside them.

"I was, but I needed a break I clearly wasn't getting anywhere with that final move" Erin moaned in disappointment.

"I'm sure there are other moves you could use instead" Kairi suggested kindly.

"Yeah but this one will really dazzle the judges, a number of factors have to be taken into account to before this like: timing, precision, flexibility, speed etcetera."

"I saw you do a lot of gymnastic moves that looked really difficult. Do you think you could teach me how to make my body more flexible?" Kairi was completely taken in.

"Well, it's actually difficult to make your body flexible when you're older. It's better to start when you're younger, but I can give it a shot and teach you if you like" Erin positive glowed with delight at spending time with her new friend.

"Oh that would be fantastic!" Kairi cheered.

Cherry watched the interaction between the two observing the perfect synchronicity between them that was clear that they were to be fast friends.

"So what you up to Cherry?" the girl nearly jumped at being included in the conversation.

"Oh, I'm just looking into what the supercomputer has in it"

"Yeah, she's really focused. She can't even spare a minute to help me with my homework" Kairi chipped in mischievously causing Cherry to flush like her namesake.

"I don't mind helping you." She mumbled shyly looking down.

"So could you lend me a spare thought on my homework?" Kairi repeated nicely.

Cherry let out a defeated sigh "What do you need help on?" she asked.

"I need to know how black holes happen… I know roughly what happens, but not the details"

"That's easy!"

Cherry closed her eyes reciting from perfect memory what the answer needed was while Kairi took notes and Erin.

"What you need to say is that a black hole is a celestial body with such an intense pull that nothing, can escape its pull. It possesses an infinite density and is a one-way pathway because things can go in but cannot escape out. Its core is termed as singularity and the outer boundary is the event horizon, the end point beyond which anything and everything is sucked in. How it forms is when a gigantic star reaches the final stage of its life and is about to go supernova it spends all the nuclear fuel by then. So it stops burning and heating up and cannot create the nuclear energy required to feed the star and let it make a pivotal balance to support its own gravitational draw against the intense pressures brewing inside. Therefore its stability cracks under its own gravity. The radius of the star shrinks to a critical size, called the _Schwarzschild radius_ and it starts to devour anything and everything that comes too close, including light. The core of the star caves in and implodes due to its own gravity. The outer shells of the star explode into the space. They may even fall into the already dense black hole making it even heavier and denser. That's how you get a _stellar mass black hole_. The reactions that occur in the star making the black hole are-" Cherry was stopped when a hand went over her mouth.

"Cherry, thank you for all the information but the reactions that occur inside black holes are studied in chemistry and I'm not doing chemistry" Kairi told her hurriedly but gratefully before she got carried away.

"You were the one who asked for my help" Cherry huffed irked at being stopped in the middle of explaining.

"And it was brilliant! You are my epiphany of knowledge. But you do tend to bang on a bit." Kairi told her truthfully.

"You can't really blame her Kairi, all that information in her brain has to be used for something" Erin teased lightly.

Cherry was just about to retort when she heard the girl from the couple in the corner tell her boyfriend about something happening recently which all students did but this information was useful and worrying to them.

"I heard that Oscar went crazy ever since he started liking Lia; especially when she got hurt; he says that there was a black hole in her room"

"Yeah I heard too. She had to go to the infirmary apparently she hit her head in her room on her wardrobe when it fell over her" the boy replied.

"It's probably cos she tripped over one of her unnecessary furniture; she has far too much stuff in her room" The girl commented as they both left the library.

Cherry, Erin and Kairi shared a look before they all shoved their stuff into their school bags and headed to the infirmary.

_Back on Lyoko:_

Arti knew that Cherry wasn't going to be coming anytime soon so he had to find a way to get past the Krabs. He crouched down as he prepared for a risky plan.

The Krabs waited patiently for Arti to try and come out while he eyed the gap in-between the two Krabs which was the path he had to follow.

Arti trusting his instinctive nature going on all fours leapt out of the tree at lightning speed avoiding the lasers which threatened to hit him had he been slower. He darted under one of the Krabs and pushed one of its legs to the edge from the momentum he gained. Arti quickly ran out of there on all fours whilst the Krab toppled into the other one whom was aiming at Arti; their legs got tangled causing both to fall over the edge.

Arti looked over the side where they fell.

"Good to know I'm not that useless" Arti breathed excited from the adrenaline.

He ran on ahead to the cross path following the pulsations when he stopped in his tracks hearing a sound that seemed a lot like a rolling sound coming from his left. Arti turned and saw a gigantic black metal ball rolling towards him at a fast speed.

He recognised it for some reason and even remembered what it was, just like the Krab.

"A Megatank…" he whispered wondering how he knew what it was from what he could remember he hadn't seen it before, but his instinct told him otherwise. His instinct also quickly reminded him that he would be flattened if he didn't get moving now.

Arti jumped to his path running as fast as he could avoiding the Megatank who stopped rolling when it got to the beginning of his path and turned to it opening its shell to reveal two Eyes, which are located opposite each other on a support ring inside its casing and in the shell you could see some pink gunk holding the two metal parts together which looked an awful lot like chewing gum. Fake Eyes appeared around its equatorial axis as it opened its shell

Arti didn't falter in his run but became aware of a slight trembling and the sound of something being charged and turned his head at the Megatank only to see it charge its beam and release it causing its elliptical laser to fire and nearly catch him only barely touching his tail.

Aware that Arti was now out of reach the Megatank closed its shell and rolled forward at a high speed chasing Arti catching up quickly.

Arti heard the sound of the Megatank rolling getting closer and turned to see it was catching up to him fast and would soon flatten him. He looked ahead to see that the path where the vibrations were coming from were at the next right.

Arti dropped to all fours and dashed forward sharply turning right at the intersection causing the Megatank to have to stop temporarily so it could turn to Arti's path to continue the chase.

_The Infirmary:_

The door opened to reveal a frantic slim woman approach Oscar who was sitting outside the infirmary.

"Mrs Durand" Oscar squeaked in surprise at her speed to hear the news.

The woman was wearing a black blazer, long sleeved white blouse with a red and white striped bow and a matching short pencil skirt. She had long black hair with a widows peak that had been pulled into a large low bun with two strands at the front dangling and framing her face that showed two icy blue eyes giving her a professional and beautiful look despite seeming distressed.

"What happened to Amelia?" she demanded in a clear voice that went right to the point.

"Well, a mini-black hole somehow got into her room and started attacking her. So everything in the room was flying towards the centre of the room; when I entered Lia was unconscious because the wardrobe fell on top of her." Oscar explained honestly.

"I am not in the mood for jokes Agnes! Tell me what really happened!" Mrs Durand repeated sternly.

"It's the truth Miss" he insisted bravely but backed down under her look.

"Fine… maybe your eyes were playing tricks on you. We'll find out what really happened later" she dismissed deciding to worry about what happened in Lia's room later.

She went to the Infirmary door opening it and leaving Oscar waiting outside for news of his crush.

Unbeknownst to Oscar, Cherry, Erin and Kairi had heard the whole thing from outside the open corridor door.

The three shared a look with worried frowns on their faces before they ran off heading to the factory; Cherry took out her smartphone and dialled Emerald's number before putting it to her ear.

_In the gymnasium:_

Emerald and Sora were still fighting aiming to be the one to pin the other down in some way.

Sora aimed a kick at her but Emerald grabbed his leg and used his momentum to throw him behind her. Sora however was quick as he took a hold of Emerald's shoulders as he was being thrown through the air; catching her off guard whilst he dragged her down with him twisting their bodies around.

When they landed Sora was the one pinning a stunned Emerald. They both settled down with the adrenaline cooling off from their veins their breaths very rapid as they slowly blushed a little before Sora got off Emerald to lay down beside clearly aware that she was as out of breath as he was.

"Does this make us even now?" Emerald smirked playfully as she sat up.

"Pretty much… we should join the others now they're probably done with their activities" Sora reminded her getting up.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about tonight" she mused following Sora's lead before going to put on her jacket and skirt over her clothes.

"Have you told your other friends where you've been?" Sora asked curiously as she changed.

Emerald finished straightening her jacket as Sora asked his question turned a bit shy at that looking down and scuffing her blue boots against the ground embarrassed.

"I actually… don't have any other friends. People consider me weird when they get to know me better" she admitted quietly making Sora raise his eyebrows astonished that this gorgeous girl didn't have any other friend's from Cherry.

Sora opened his mouth to assure her but they were both startled by a crackling sound that appeared from the plug socket making them turn their heads to see the socket shoot out a bolt of electricity to the centre of the room.

The bolt quickly began spinning and a mini-black hole grew sucking in everything available in the room into its incredibly dense core that was slowly increasing in its gravity.

"Quickly! Before it becomes big enough to pull us in!" Sora shouted pulling Emerald by her wrist to go to the door to the boiler room which leads to the sewers.

The mini-black hole then did a most unusual thing, whilst still growing bigger it moved in the direction that Emerald and Sora just went intending to follow them.

_In the boiler room:_

The pair both shoved the door open before slamming it shut. Sora quickly went and got the mini-cabinet that was there for secret files and slid it in front of the door to shut it.

Meanwhile Emerald received a call and she took out her mobile to find Cherry on the other line answering it.

"Cherry? What's happening?" Emerald asked.

"_I can't explain everything right now, but Lia was attacked by a-a-"_ Cherry was clearly running whilst speaking probably to the entrance to the sewers that they took last night to get back to the academy which was in the school grounds rather than the entrance she and Sora were at.

"A mini-black hole?" Emerald finished with a raised eyebrow.

"_I-well… yes, how did you know?" _Cherry asked stunned.

"Oh, just a wild guess… that and Sora and I are currently being chased by it…" Emerald took a glance at the door being used to shut out the black monster chasing convinced that it wouldn't take long for it to break through.

"_In that case, there's a change in plan. We can't wait until tonight to materialise Arti, go to the factory now with Sora. We need to guide Arti to the red tower, Erin, Kairi and I will meet you on the way there" _Cherry ordered in a rush before hanging up presumably because she was just entering the sewers.

Emerald then hung up her end, the she turned face to Sora.

"We're to go to the factory now" she told him and he nodded going to the door that lead to the sewers with Emerald following close behind him.

_In the sewers:_

The pair jumped through the entrance into the sewers just in time to meet up with Cherry and the others as they ran through it. They stopped when they met up with Sora and Emerald clearly out of breath.

"Ok, if this becomes a regular thing we're going to need a quicker mode of transport" Erin gasped.

"Well, with some luck we won't even need to go again after this- wait a moment!" Kairi stopped the rest from continuing. They all glared at her.

"We're kind of in a hurry!" Sora reminded her irritated.

"Then won't we get there faster with modes of transport?" she questioned smirking.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Cherry snapped her patience wearing thin.

Kairi's grin did not falter only growing stronger when she raised her hand pointing with her finger to the area beside the entrance Emerald and Sora came from. Everyone's gaze followed the finger to see something's there that weren't noticed before, there were 2 scooters and 3 skateboards all propped up against the sewage pipe and ready to use.

"How long have those been there? And how come we didn't notice them last night?" Erin asked dumbly while Cherry crept closer to examine them.

"There are cobwebs and a thick layer of dust on them… I'd say these have been down here for many years. I can't how many exactly though…" Cherry examined them carefully as she said this.

"There's no time to see how old they are, they're the best we've got so let's use them" Emerald stepped in quickly grabbing a skateboard smacking the dust and cobwebs off of it before rolling it on the ground and jumping to ride on it.

The rest soon shrugged their shoulders, and then followed her lead. Cherry and Erin took the scooters while the twins pinched the last two skateboards. They all headed to the factory in haste eager to stop all this before more people become hurt.

_Meanwhile on Lyoko:_

Arti was still being chased by the Megatank; now it decided to change its tactic by firing its full circle laser constantly whilst rolling. It was made more dangerous by the fact that Arti was losing the energy to keep running on all fours and was slowing down.

Arti switched back to two feet as he saw the teal tower ahead at the end of the path. He gave his last burst of energy to keep within a reasonable distance between him and the laser.

He got nearer to the tower and made the mistake of relaxing ever so slightly that he slowed down a little and the laser managed to hit his paw losing some life points. Arti jumped and sped up in a panic rushing towards the teal tower.

He hardly noticed as he passed through the tower door at a speed, followed by the Megatank crashing into the tower with a rather abrupt stop.

_In the way tower:_

Arti ran to the middle slowing down and stopping at the centre recovering from the long run and hit he took.

Arti couldn't help but think that the Megatank didn't really go all out to kill him. His intuition told him that it was doing something else, luring him into a trap for example. But, why? He had nothing of value and he didn't know if there was anyone else around on Lyoko who was waiting for him. He knew that these feelings were neither logical nor sensible. However, it was like there was a voice in the back of his head telling him that the Megatank was capable of more than it showed; so the reason it didn't give its full power is because it had to be luring him somewhere right?

Arti shook his head to get the nonsense out and focus on finding out what the pulsations were. He's already come this far; it'd be pointless to turn back now.

When he had recovered enough he calmly walked to the edge of the platform; looked down at the black bottom of the tower which he knew would get him to the next sector in which he wanted to go.

Arti closed his eyes and spread his arms out lifting his head up before leaning forwards off the platform and letting virtual gravity do its job.

He went up the familiar sight of screens of data appearing up as he suddenly was the right way up and landing gently on the platform certain there was nothing to fear once he exited the tower.

He strolled on the platform to the door and leaned against the door waiting patiently until it pulled him through.

_Outside the next way tower:_

Arti was greeted to a purple rocky landscape when he exited the tower; unfortunately he heard metal footsteps immediately putting him on high alert and tensing. Looking to his left and right he saw two Tarantulas coming out from behind the tower almost like they were expecting him.

Arti didn't wait for them to come out fully as he quickly sprinted forwards on the thin rocky path to get away from them. They spotted him as soon as he started running and chased after him frequently going on their hind legs to fire lasers at him.

_At the factory:_

Emerald reached the ladder first setting the skateboard against the wall before climbing up while the twins came right behind her followed by Cherry and Erin.

Emerald slid the manhole cover to the side and then climbed out of the sewers, she waited for the others; Sora appeared soon quickly scrambling out and on his feet so his sister could get through as well. Emerald ran to the factory remembering how she and Cherry entered before when it was her first time there; she grabbed and swung around sliding down the rope know that the others were behind her.

Erin climbed out next followed by Cherry who shut the manhole before running after her friends who were swinging down the ropes smoothly with no delays after the each pair.

Cherry and Erin reached the ropes and without hesitation they both leapt for their respective ropes swinging wildly around to the lift entrance, Cherry was swinging a bit more cautiously than her wild and fun-loving Brit companion who flew down her rope landing in a perfect crouch before standing up and rushing to the fairly crowded lift. Cherry was more careful in her landing preferring to land neatly on two feet rather than in a rush.

Cherry slammed her hand on the button to go down to the lab and the lift went down.

_The lab:_

The lift door opened with a hiss of air unlocking itself to allow Cherry to enter the room almost like it was her second home.

"All of you head to the scanners and I'll send you as soon as you tell me when you're ready" Cherry told them heading towards the computer.

They all nodded and Erin pressed the button to go down to the scanner room shutting the lift so they could go down.

Cherry sat in her computer seat and put the headset on to speak to Arti.

"Arti, You're there aren't you? Arti?" Cherry called tapping a few keys to start the virtualisation process.

"Cherry!" Arti sounded panicked and breathy like he was running.

"Arti, where are you?" she asked urgently in the microphone knowing he wasn't in the tower from before.

"I-I'm in the mountain sector being chased by two tarantulas!" he cried.

"Do you have a death wish? Why on earth did you leave the tower in the first place!?" Cherry burst with immediate concern.

"There were strange pulsations happening, I needed to check them out" he defended himself vehemently.

"Ok, don't worry Arti. I'm sending you a whole team to help you, but for now try and hide away from the Tarantulas." She told him hurriedly tapping away to send the others to Lyoko in the Mountain sector where Arti was.

_On Lyoko:_

Arti hurriedly ran to the end of the path and could see that there was a gap in the path. He had no other choice than to jump; so he dropped to all fours to pick up speed while the tarantulas still fired at him.

He reached the edge of the path and leapt over the long gap reaching over the edge safely. He stood up and turned around to see the monsters, he knew he was too far away for them to fire at him with a guarantee to hit him since he could just hide behind the rock that was next to him.

One of the Tarantulas tried to jump over to the other side like Arti, it managed to reach the edge. However it only had its two front legs catch the ledge and it scrambled its front legs trying desperately to pull itself over. It didn't work as he slipped and fell over the edge.

Its friend watched him fall and Arti smiled in relief that they wouldn't be able to come over.

He waited for the others that Cherry promised to arrive, but unfortunately Arti saw two Hornets fly to hover beside the Tarantula; they all shared a look before the Tarantula pointed at Arti.

Arti backed off immediately knowing that they were going to chase after him. True to his suspicions the Hornets flew forward firing a succession of lasers at Arti causing him to run to get away from them while they gave chase.

_In the scanner room:_

"Wow, I knew that Arti was in some virtual world. But I never actually thought you could enter it! I've missed so much these past few days. Damn that Project!" Emerald cursed put out at having missed all the initial excitement since she knew that after this, the supercomputer was to be shut down.

"Well, at least you get to go now." Kairi assured her.

"If you lot don't mind, we're kind of in a rush to help Arti. I'm starting up the procedure so Kairi and Sora you two go in first, and then Erin and Emerald" Cherry called over the intercom.

"See you on Lyoko" Kairi waved as she passed Erin and stepped into a scanner facing her with her twin doing the same to Emerald.

"Transfer Kairi"

"Transfer Sora"

The rings moved up and down their bodies in their respective scanners.

"Scanner Kairi"

"Scanner Sora"

Cherry types in the final instructions needed.

"Virtualisation"

Kairi's hair was blown upwards in her scanner along with Sora's in his while they both were blinded by a bright white light that made them know no more.

Erin and Emerald saw the scanner doors open to reveal the twins were gone, causing them to look at each other with apprehension. They hesitantly stepped into the newly opened scanners and waited while the doors closed as Cherry repeated the process before they too were engulf by a white light and sent to Lyoko.

_On Lyoko:_

Kairi and Sora's virtual forms constructed themselves in mid-air, hovering for a second before dropping to the ground. Having remembered the fall they were expecting it, so they were able to land in neat crouches Kairi landing first and Sora second.

"Cool, I'm still a West Indian princess" Kairi beamed at the familiar attire back on her. Sora similarly praised his own outfit return.

The sound of virtualisation was faintly heard from behind them, it was followed by the sounds of two girls who cried out in pain at the unexpected drop. This forced the twins to sharply turn around and focus on the newcomers currently on the ground nursing their sore bottoms.

"Why didn't you warn us of a drop? It would've spared our bums the pain" Emerald grumbled irritably and she stood up.

"Your hair has grown longer" Sora noted surprised.

"Wow, you look like a goddess Em" Kairi cheered as she and her brother took in her appearance.

"I do?" she questioned looking down at her attire and she gasped in amazement. Of all the possible incarnations she could've been modelled after, she never imagined anything as wonderful as what she was wearing now.

She ran her hand over the delicate fabric of her skirt attached to her one shouldered mini dress that was kind of like a toga but altered. The mini skirt had a gold trim with what she could see was a Greek pattern. Upwards she had a heavy faux leather belt with studs on it around her waist separating her top from her bottom. The top half had a short one sided short sleeve to her right with the same gold trim. Her left shoulder had 4 small leather straps next to each other holding the dress up on the other side. She wore leather matching cufflinks with the faint gold pattern.

She stroked her now longer lilac hair that was now curled beautifully up to her mid back with part of it resting on her right on her chest curling above her bust. On this part there a green streak from her parting flowed down her hair in front fading out at chin length.

Emerald stuck her feet out in delight. She wore golden coloured knee length barefoot sandals. She felt a bump on her left hip, she trailed along the black scabbard attached to her belt that had gold metal attacked at the end and wrapped near the hilt with golden studs along it.

She put her right hand on the sword hilt gripping it tightly before smoothly pulling it out and holding it in front of her a Greek hoplite sword.

"Wow! That is so cool!" Sora awed as the twins got closer to her to marvel at her weapon.

"Yeah, that's a much better weapon than mine… Can we switch avatars?" Kairi offered ready to give up being a princess if it meant she got a cool blade like that.

Emerald spun it expertly in her hand experimentally find the movements quick and precise before bringing it up; pointing it at Kairi's throat making her back off a little.

"No chance" she grinned easily lowering her sword letting Kairi let out the virtual breath she'd been holding.

"You look gorgeous Emerald" Erin said in awe and the 3 then remembered that Erin was there.

"So, what are we running from again?" Erin beamed whilst the other three gaped.

"What?"

"You look amazing" Emerald admired smiling at her outfit, if she thought her own character avatar was gorgeous Erin's was fantastic.

Erin looked down at what she was wearing and gasped astounded. She wore a golden orange dress with long bell sleeves with a red glitter trail spiralling around them and they ended at the shoulder swirling slightly to join the red glitter Phoenix across Erin's chest with the Phoenix's head on her right shoulder and its body going down southwest from there with its proud flame tail trailing down near the skirt part.

The skirt part was like palm leaf parts but in the same material as the dress and the 'leaves' overlapped the one next to them slightly reaching just above her knees. Underneath she wore red-orange trouser boots with a small thick heel. She had a bright fiery orange choker along with coral red stone earrings.

What was most wonderful was that Erin felt something strange on her back but a nice strange and was ecstatic to find two fiery coloured wings on her back. They matched her red-orange hair that went around her head and below her shoulders along with her choppy fringe.

"Oh my! This is wonderful… I love my wings they're beautiful!" Erin fawned squealing as she could curl her right wing around her to stroke it feeling the gentle, soft virtual feathers.

She flicked her long graceful wing back behind her causing a small blast of wind to blow.

Erin felt a slight jingle on both sides of her lower waist and she looked down feeling two hoops on each side. She gripped the handles of the rings and swung them from her sides to hold out in front of her.

In her hands was a pair of steel Sun and Moon rings that weren't sharp but blunt and powerful. She tried a few tricks with them in glee; they were easy to manipulate so they were a blur of expert spins.

"These are sweet weapons" she grinned before tucking them away making them magically attach to her waist and faced everyone who gathered together.

"What are you supposed to be anyway?" Emerald asked.

"I guess a kind of bird… Probably a Phoenix since I'm dressed in a lot of fiery colours and if my wings are any indication" Erin offered looking herself over.

"So a Ninja, a West Indie, a Goddess and a Phoenix" Sora summed up their avatars one by one identifying Erin's one.

"This is a pretty awesome group" Kairi smirked seeing them all gathered in their own Lyoko incarnations which were apparently from their own subconscious desires, so it made sense for all of them.

"I hate to break up this touching moment, but you weren't sent here for a costume party. You're all here to help Arti, so move your arses in the direction behind you" Cherry's impatient voice ordered.

"Chillax, we'll help your boyfriend don't get your fingers in a twist" Kairi answered cheekily.

"Let's go then" Erin said before Cherry could retort.

Erin flapped her wings strongly allowing her to hover in the air. Both she and Kairi grinned at each other before turning where Cherry said and running off in that direction with Erin flying beside Kairi.

Emerald and Sora watched momentarily before sharing a shrugged look and running after them.

_In the Infirmary:_

Lia was lying down on the Infirmary bed still recovering from her hit. Mrs Durand watched her daughter concerned whilst Jim and Yolanda waited with concern hoping nothing really serious had happened to her head.

Lia stirred opening her eyes slowly and seeing 3 adults staring down at her.

"What happened?" she moaned sitting up and holding her head while her mother helped her stay up.

"It's ok dear, you've must've tripped and whacked your head" Mrs Durand assured her daughter.

"Whack my- oh no!" Lia gasped now fully awake remembering what attacked her.

"I didn't trip! This super-something at the factory did it! Where's Sora?" She cried all in one breath, shocking the adults at how jumpy she went.

"Amelia calm down, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with Sora" Mrs Durand told her firmly.

Lia then realised her mistake as she slapped a hand over her mouth, she accidently told her mother what was going on.

"I'm sorry; I guess I'm a little tired. My brain's a bit frazzled" Lia tried to laugh it off but her mother wouldn't let it go.

"Amelia I know that look… You're involved with something and it has something to do with Sora Shimizu." Mrs Durand pressed darkly when her daughter avoided eye contact she put on an even stricter poise.

"Are you doing something illegal?" she questioned Lia immediately protested.

"No, of course not!" she denied.

"Then what! I can help, you know. That's my job! As a headmistress and your mother my role is to help you as much as I can!" she implored her daughter with frustration, slightly annoyed that she didn't have enough trust in her own mother.

Lia looked up at her mother before biting her lip in thought; then she sighed in resignation.

"If you want to help, we need to go to the abandoned factory. Sora and his sister are in awful danger, there's a mini-black hole on the loose. They've gone to this virtual world on a special computer where monsters attack them, but I'm not sure if that'll protect them" Lia explained and Mrs Durand was getting quite angry at her daughter's silliness.

"Amelia, stop this nonsense at once and tell me the truth!" Mrs Durand commanded quite crossly.

"I'm not lying, mother; we need to go there now. They're in danger!" Lia begged looking her mother in the eyes showing her the urgency.

Mrs Durand resigned and let out a sigh.

"Fine, show us the way and we'll see what's truly going on at this factory" she conceded.

_Meanwhile with Arti:_

Arti ran on all fours away from the two Hornets that were chasing him. On the path he was becoming slightly slower so he formulated a plan.

"Hope this works" he mutters hopefully before jumping off the edge of the path towards the cloud of mist. The Hornets predictably followed him.

Unknown to them Arti had latched underneath the path he was on waiting for the Hornets to pass them before he jumped down after them.

They Arti fell through the mist that the Hornets went through and landed on one of them shocking it making it stop beating its wings and fly down. On the way down Arti saw that they were at a tall mountain plateau now, the other Hornet didn't see the top of the mountain and was warped at full speed there smashing into the top and exploding.

Now Arti only had the Hornet he was riding to deal with; it had regained control before it smashed into the ground and was trying desperately to shake him off. Arti used his claws which were virtually his only weapons and dug them into the eye on its head. It wriggled vigorously throwing Arti off and at the tall mountain before bursting like its friend earlier.

Arti like a cat gripped the mountain side with his claws slowing his momentum before jumping down and landing with a catlike grace at the bottom feeling rather proud.

He leaned against the mountain waiting for the others since he could see the tower on the next plateau over. He jumped when he saw 2 Block like creatures walk from around the rock towards him; he backed off as they approached him.

"Bloks" he identified, and then he saw a familiar Tarantula round the corner after them. He took further steps back surprised they weren't attacking him.

Then he heard a very creepy cry and he turned around to see a giant Jellyfish monsters with tentacles approached him.

"Not you!" he gasped before he could move the jellyfish wrapped two tentacles around his body making a red aura appear around Arti immobilising him as it lifted him into the air; it got three of its tentacles and placed two on the sides of his head and another on his forehead.

Its tentacles made a pinkish fluid as if it was draining something. Arti was aware but couldn't break free from the creature. But he heard a voice in his head speaking to him, one that wasn't friendly.

"Arti!" Cherry's voice cried from above but was unheard by the recipient.

_With the group:_

"Guys, where are you? Arti's being attacked by some sort of jellyfish monster. It appears to be draining his memory! You have to stop the monster!"

"We're nearly there Cher" Emerald called.

"There's Arti" Sora pointed seeing him in the jellyfish's grip a short distance away.

"Right, I'm going on ahead" Erin said before picking up speed with her wings flying dead ahead the rest of the group.

Erin soared past the bodyguards who tried to hit her with their laser beams; she whipped out her steel rings and threw one of them at the tentacles knowing that she needed to stop it.

The ring teared through the tentacles at a brilliant speed cutting them off before curving back to Erin's hand which was held out for it.

"Wow, these are sweet!" she cheered overjoyed kissing her rings.

The others got involved in the fight very soon after.

Arti fell from the Monsters grip and landed on his side unconscious. He woke up feeling slightly dizzy as he shakily stood up.

Kairi dug her Tepoz head into the Blok's eye destroying it before jumping and landing beside Arti who felt a little alarmed at her sudden closeness.

"Arti is it? I'm Kairi. I must admit I can see why Cherry has her eye on you, she's got good taste" she flirted teasingly throwing him a wink inching a little closer.

"Well, I can't remember much but I don't think you're particularly bad yourself" Arti smirked back playfully.

"Come on you two, we're in a battle. Stop flirting you know Cherry won't like it" Sora shouted slashing his staff into one of the Blok's eyes.

"Damn right I won't!" the person in question snapped red at her keyboard.

"Don't worry Cher, we're just playing" Arti assured apologetically thinking he had betrayed her trust but still slightly playful.

"Forget it Cherry, they'll never be lovers. Arti's too loyal" Emerald laughed dodging the Tarantula's lasers gracefully like a dancer. She leapfrogged onto its head before it realised anything, stabbed her sword into its eye before drawing it back and hopped off somersaulting in a crouch; landing delicately on the floor whilst the Tarantula stumbled a bit and exploded as she landed.

"That takes care of that mess" Emerald smacked her hands together as if getting rid of the last piece of dirt.

"You're not still jealous are you Cherry?" Erin teased as Emerald walked back to their little circle.

"In any case we need to get you to the red tower" Cherry ignored her jibe.

"Right, it's that way everyone" Arti pointed down the mountain path where the pulsations were leading.

They all ran in the direction Arti pointed, Arti stayed between them all for protection. Erin was in front since she was still flying.

_With Lia:_

Lia took off the manhole cover which led into the sewers. Jim and Mrs Durand looked down in disgust and turned their noses up at the smell.

"Amelia, this is not amusing! We are not traveling through the sewers" the headmistress said strictly.

"Sure, we can take the long way round. By then that same black hole that attacked me will have hurt Cherry and the others!" she snapped sarcastically very annoyed at her mother's constant complaining.

"Fine, this better not be a load of hogs wash" she warned before respectfully climbing down into the sewers, followed by Jim and then Lia.

_In the lab:_

Cherry saw a mini-black hole on the monitor in the factory floor approaching where she was.

"I think that physics homework you did today Kairi was a foreshadowing of some kind" Cherry commented bleakly.

"Not really I've had that homework for a day" she replied; Cherry laughed slightly at her casual answer.

_On Lyoko:_

"Where are you anyway?"

"We're near the tower now" Erin answered not slowing down.

"Hurry up, it's not looking good over here." Cherry urged.

"What were those things again?" Emerald asked as they ran onto a big mountain plateau with a wide space; up ahead the red tower was over there.

"Bloks, and there's one for each of you" the Bloks then noticed them in the distance and scuttled towards them firing their lasers.

"Arti go hide, we'll take care of them" Sora told him and he nodded rushing to hide behind a big rock knowing he was helpless since he had no way to regenerate himself nor attack.

The warriors separated as they darted forwarded getting each one of the Blok's attentions.

_The lab:_

Cherry frantically tapped away before gasping as she heard a whooshing sound above her; she saw the mini-black hole had followed them there. It was slowly lowering its self into the room forcing Cherry to run to the side before it managed to suck her in.

_Lyoko:_

Sora ran from a Blok that was firing rings at him; he focused on imagining himself behind the Blok. An image appeared, the Blok sensed it and turned allowing Sora to charge and stab his staff into the Blok.

"These are easy" he whistled.

He was hit by Emerald's Blok who had turned momentarily to attack him. The hit really stung and it crackled with electricity for a little bit.

"But tricky" he added regretfully rubbing his hit limb.

Emerald managed to get close to the Blok and was about to stab it with her sword but the Blok blasted it away at the last second. Emerald was so angry, she curled her fist and drove it straight into the eye. Her punch shattered the eye into little bits making it crackle with electricity; she yanked it out before she could lose life points as it exploded.

"Remind me not to make you angry" Sora gulped before the two ran to help the others.

Erin was having trouble with hers it was rather clever spinning to avoid being destroyed by her rings.

"Damn! This one's clever" she growled trying desperately to hit an eye on the spinning Blok slashing her rings one way or another in perfect and fast unison.

The Blok was charging up an ice beam as it was spinning, when it felt there were no rings as Erin got tired as she couldn't hold it up forever, it fired at Erin rather unexpectedly catching her off guard; making her freeze and then devirtualise.

Kairi cursed and lured her Blok away from the tower confident that the other two would handle the other.

Arti shrank back when a Blok passed him.

"Cherry, Erin's been devirtualised"

_In the lab:_

Cherry screamed as she clung onto the side of the room as the black hole gained a stronger pull and got bigger in the room sitting in the place where the holomap appeared. She faintly heard Arti's voice from the supercomputer tell her something about Erin.

_Back in Lyoko:_

Emerald and Sora had been hit a few times, now Sora was sure he was on his last few life points.

Kairi joined the two as her Blok chased her as well.

"Guys, you get rid of one. I've found out another ability I have" Kairi called leading the other Blok around a rock. It looked around for her

"Let's do it Em" Sora shouted smirking gaining one back before the two skids to a stop, whilst Kairi led her Blok away. Sora grabbed Emerald's arm and spun her around before throwing her on top on the Blok.

The Blok turned its head in confusion before Emerald stabbed its eye with her sword before dancing lightly off. That seemed to be an ability of her avatar, she was quite light on her feet.

The other Blok from earlier had returned having lost Kairi. It fired a laser hitting Sora directly in the chest devirtualising him instantly. Emerald steadied herself as it charged to fire at her, but suddenly it jerked as an arrow hit it from behind but not in its eye.

It turned against the barrage of arrows and fired its charged laser at the direction of the firing arrows.

"Ow!" Kairi yelled skidding backwards where Arti was hiding behind a big rock fading into visibility again, she got hit before she was able to make herself intangible.

"Kairi!" Arti exclaimed worried.

"Go now to the red tower" she gasped out as her avatar de-pixelated.

Arti dashed around the rock he was hiding on his way to the red tower, he was going to go between two boulders when a Tarantula stepped out of hiding stopping Arti in his tracks. Emerald saw this in the corner of her eye and threw her sword like a javelin into the Blok's eye. She ran over to where Arti was as quick as she could.

Arti however wasn't afraid, there was a little voice inside him telling him that there was something he could do. He trusted this voice and closed his eyes; instantly a choir of voices emitted from him as his hand glowed purple. A structure virtualised before solidifying itself into a stone wall in front of the Tarantula blocking it.

Emerald rushed over to help only to gasp in amazement as she saw Arti create a stone wall in front of the Tarantula.

"Did you just make that?" She asked as Arti put his hand down opening his eyes.

"I believe so" he answered unsure, because it was more instinct that he used it rather than free will.

They could both hear the Tarantula firing rapidly at the stone wall knowing that it wouldn't stay standing for long.

"Arti quick run to the tower" Emerald urged and he dashed off on all fours around the rocks avoid the Tarantula who didn't notice him running behind him thinking he was still behind the rock.

"Cherry, no need to worry Arti has- argh!" the stone wall gave way at that point and a large piece of stone landed on Emerald flattening and devirtualising her.

Arti meanwhile entered the tower, he remained calm entering it slowly and going into the centre the rings beeping as they glowed one by one. A blue aura surrounded him as he was given access to float up; for some reason it seemed awfully familiar.

_In the lab:_

The lift door opened and it revealed Lia with her mother and Jim in tow. They gasped at seeing the black hole in the middle of the room which had become bigger in time. Cherry was at the edge of the room holding on for dear life.

As the door became fully open, they all experienced the intense pull that swept them off their feet. In fear of their lives they each grabbed onto a stable attachment of some kind. Only Mrs Durand wasn't able to in time and she flew into the room.

"MUM!" Lia screamed terrified.

Luckily Mrs Durand managed to take a hold of the computer monitor screen, she wrapped her arms around it to avoid being sucked inside the black hole.

_In the Tower:_

Arti walked forward looking around wondering what was there that could help with materialising him. He jumped a little when an interface screen appeared, but he breathed a sigh of relief. He felt slightly stupid since he remembered having used one a while back to see if there was anything to help Cherry.

He put his paw on the screen to access it; it recognised him.

ODD

"Odd… My name!" he realised in joy watching as the interface automatically entered a code that was triggered when he placed his paw there.

CODE

LYOKO

He expected something to happen since the screens around him went down; then new wall screens appeared around him probably to consist with the rearranged setting his code induced. But he wasn't being materialised as far as he could tell.

"Cherry, it didn't work" he called sadly.

_In the lab:_

The black hole collapsed upon itself and diminished into nothing allowing Mrs Durand to let go and land on the floor along with everyone else.

"Mum, are you alright?" Lia asked frantically rushing over to hug her mother.

"I'm fine dear, but what on earth was that about?" she asked incredulously looking at Cherry who was recovering herself.

Erin and the others then appeared using the ladder to get from the scanner to the lab. They had been waiting for everyone to be devirtualised before meeting up with Cherry.

"Lia!?" Sora was feeling betrayed and at the same time angry at himself. He had a feeling Lia would do this.

"Sora, thank goodness you're safe" Lia cheered rushing over to hug him, but he dodged with a frown on his face.

"You swore not to tell!" he reminded her crossly.

Lia looked at the rest of the group and they had identical looks that masked the disgust that Lia would betray their trust.

"Sora, I know I swore but… this is over our heads. The adults can help much better than us kids!" Lia argued fruitlessly.

"You still should've discussed this with us so we could vote whether we should or not! Besides, we were hoping to shut this down tonight!" Emerald yelled at her.

"This thing is obviously dangerous. The police should know so they can deal with it" Mrs Durand said voicing her opinion stepping near the computer monitor.

"See? It's dangerous" Lia said smugly.

"You bloody smug traitor" Erin growled.

"At least I don't look like a clown" Erin was incensed at the insult; she was this close to hitting her. Only sheer will and the fact that the headmistress was there stopped her.

"Where's Arti?" Cherry cut in anxious to know.

"Sorry Cherry, he didn't materialise" Kairi told her apologetically.

"I command you to shut this thing down, Miss Morel and give me a very good explanation of what has transpired here" Mrs Durand spoke loudly and with dictation coming up behind Cherry. Cherry was a tad bit frightened but adamant not to simply conform to her.

"No!" she tapped away on the supercomputer opening a file.

"What are you doing?" Jim demanded.

"Trying out a new program" she replied tapping away.

"Do you mean that time travel program you unlocked today?" Kairi questioned sceptically.

"Yes" she answered typing in the final commands.

Just then Arti's image appeared on the screen, showing he was in the tower. No one noticed Mrs Durand give a slight gasp when she saw the boy on screen.

"What's wrong, Cherry?" he asked frantically noticing the other person in the video feed.

"Don't worry Arti, I'll tell you in a bit" Cherry pressed "Enter" on her keyboard.

"Odd…" Mrs Durand whispered in disbelief causing Arti to stare at her in shock from his screen and Cherry to look oddly at her and him. A second later a white light shot out from the centre of the room and expanded engulfing them all in the light.

_The courtyard:_

Emerald picked up her hot drink from the vending machine and walked back only to realise that this seemed awfully familiar.

"Weren't we here yesterday?" Sora asked bewildered.

Erin came jogging to them, she panted slightly taking in the group gathering.

"So it did happen, we went back to the day before" Erin gasped.

Just then Cherry walked past and went to the vending machine and selected a Coke.

"Brilliant Miss Einstein, you managed to do a return to the past" Kairi cheered her on.

"I'm sorry what?" Cherry asked confused.

"Come on you haven't forgotten my West Indie avatar on Lyoko, which is on the supercomputer at the factory have you?" Kairi teased whilst Cherry whirled around.

"How do you know about Lyoko?" she questioned suspiciously.

"I guess, only we remember what happened except Cherry." Sora mused.

"Come on Cher, let's prompt your memory" Emerald said cheerily pulling her along while the others followed.

_In Cherry's room at night:_

"But why couldn't I remember anything?" Cherry wondered after everything had been explained to her.

"Perhaps it's because you were the only one of us other than Lia who didn't go to Lyoko?" Erin suggested being the only one standing up and not sitting on her bed like the others.

"That's possible, well I'll go scan myself in first thing tomorrow morning" Cherry said determined.

"Cherry, as much as I would love to see your virtual avatar I don't think you should. The supercomputer needs to be shut down" Arti protested kindly.

"But Arti…" she argued fruitlessly.

"Not Arti… Odd" he corrected happily.

"When I deactivated the tower, my name appeared" he explained in joy.

"Odd… It does suit you." Cherry smiled giggling a little.

"That is the strangest name I've ever heard" Kairi raised an eyebrow at the name.

"I didn't choose it, I would guess my creator did if I have one" He shrugged in reply.

"But I promised to materialise you Odd" Cherry was despondent.

"Cherry, please! I know you promised. But I don't want to put lives at risk" Odd was sad but adamant.

"Odd its ok, I'm sure I can find out and fix that bug or virus thing that caused all that chaos" she insisted.

"That'll take at least all night to fix Cherry, even at your best" Emerald warned worriedly.

"It'll take less time than all night to know what it was, as for fixing it I don't think it's even possible much less doing it in one night."

"What are you talking about?" Sora spoke up.

"XANA"

Everyone stared at the computer screen with the cat boy who only answered that one word.

"What's that?" Kairi broke the silence.

"It's an evil, malicious program kind of like a virus who wants to get something from me. But I don't know what; I believe that the red tower was his doing" he explained.

"When that Scyphozoa, by that I mean the big jellyfish, attacked me. I heard XANA speak to me in my head. He said I had something that he needs." Odd admitted looking down remembering what transpired back then.

_Flashback_

_Odd was in a really white room in what he assumed was his mind; he looked around as he heard slight chuckling around him._

"_Who's there?" he shouted._

"_You mean you don't remember me? I'm hurt, you've fought and foiled my plans many times before" the voice was like poisoned ice._

"_I-I did? I don't remember anything…" Odd put a hand to his head._

"_I am experiencing what humans would call 'Déjà vu', this is oddly familiar. There was someone else like you who had your exact same predicament. Couldn't remember anything either, but that person had something that I needed, and now you have it"_

"_What do I have that you could possibly want?" Odd choked in disbelief._

"_There's no real point in telling you… in a few minutes your hidden memories shall be taken. But I believe you deserve to know at least my name… I am XANA" the voice echoed off the walls._

_Odd gasped as images of a symbol resembling an eye that was on the monsters earlier. And he had vague images of himself fighting against them with very blurred silhouettes in the background which he couldn't make out. _

"_Remember something kitty?" XANA mocked._

"_I did fight you… You're an evil program who can't be reasoned with! I don't know what you want from me, but I can assure you that my friends shall stop you!" Odd yelled glaring around the room._

_An evil cackle rang throughout the room._

"_Oh little kitty cat, your new friends are too naïve to this supercomputer. Hoping that they'll save you is useless 'Arti'"_

"_Surely you know XANA, that if you got to know Cherry like I have. You would know that she will never give up" Odd boasted confidently._

"_I didn't expect that to change this time around…" XANA's voice grew dark._

_Before Odd could question it the whole room went dark and he felt himself falling back into Lyoko._

_End of flashback_

"Guys, the only thing I remembered from that is, that I used to be able to fight this XANA before. But I don't want you to risk your lives fighting XANA whilst trying to bring me over to Earth, so I beg you to shut off the supercomputer." Odd pleaded.

"The thing is Odd; Cherry is not the only one bound by promises. We are as well. When we swore to keep you a secret we also shared the duty of helping you. So even if we have to fight this creep XANA… we WILL bring you over here!" Erin told him determinedly with an unwavering stare.

"She's right. Promises should never be made lightly unless you intend to fulfil them" Kairi added in agreement.

Sora and Emerald nodding making noises of agreement.

"Really? You're willing to risk your lives to help me?" Odd asked touched.

"Why else would Erin make that big speech?" Emerald countered lightly making Odd speechless.

"Odd, let's make this clear. We won't abandon you! While I work on a way to materialise you, if XANA attacks the others shall guide you to the tower to deactivate it. Everyone agrees right?" Cherry turned to find everyone smiling and nodding in agreement.

"Well, we'd better leave… I need to go home. It's nearly bedtime, my parents will kill me if I'm not back in time" Emerald said checking her phone.

"Yeah we should go to bed too" Kairi commented yawning before grabbing her brother's arm and dragging him out of the room after Emerald.

"See you Cher" Erin waved going after the others shutting the door behind her.

Cherry turned back to Odd, he had his cheek in his paw in thought.

"What's up?"

"It's just that woman, I think 'Mrs Durand', before the return in time happened… I could've sworn she said my name when she saw me." Odd told her honestly looking at Cherry with confused amber eyes.

"Odd it's just your head playing tricks. There's no way that Mrs Durand could've known you. I mean you-came from a supercomputer!" Cherry almost said he wasn't real but bit her tongue.

"No, it seemed like she recognised me… like she hadn't seen me in a long time" Odd pressed.

"You probably just look like someone she knew. Don't worry so much about it!" Cherry laughed cheerily.

"You're right, I'm sorry Cherry" he apologised.

The two then chatted like normal with Odd learning more new things about Earth life.

_The headmistress's office:_

Mrs Durand packed up her things in the dimly lit room ready to head off to her bedroom. She stepped across the room to pick up her mobile, when her fingers brushed the edges of a frame.

She stopped for a moment; picking up the picture she looked closely at it with a reminiscent face. Then, she sighed as she put it down and so taking her mobile she left her office to go to bed shutting the door firmly behind her.

The photo showed a group of children all the same age except the black haired girl in the middle, who was hugging the younger pinkette beside her. On the pinkette's left was a blonde bespectacled boy and on the blackly dressed girl's right were two boys, one in green the other purple.

The one in purple was holding a small dog in his arms smiling happily at the end of the picture.

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Finally! I am finished!

I'm ever so sorry it took this long. I have tried to not make it a carbon copy and more original, and if anyone is observant they will notice why I had Lia do what Sissi did (it's probably really obvious, but I don't know. I have left clues, I don't know how strong they are tho).

I must admit in the last few days I lost inspiration for a bit because I saw the ending of Code Lyoko Evolution (through the Hungary dub with Eng subs); I was quite disappointed and sad at it. Although it might mean there's a chance for it to go back to animation if it continues for another season.

Don't worry about me losing inspiration, I may lose it sometimes but I never give up on it completely! I just try and get myself in the mood again by watching old favourite episodes which worked ;D

Oh and I know like NOTHING about rhythmic gymnastics so forgive me if it's wrong.

Again like before if you want help to imagine my outfits for Emerald and Erin's avatars, just PM me and I'll send you the links ;)

Hope I did a good job. I gave it 100%. I'm sorry to say that I am busy for the rest of the summer and I do not know how often I'll be able to work on the next chapter since I'll be in year 12 which is A-level year, so don't expect it immediately, but I'll work on it as much as I can and post as soon as possible.

Please R&R so I can know how I did.


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